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With tinsel clutched between her teeth, Mika hopped high to drape it over the cabinet's handles, the snake of gilded confetti resting in a delicate balance. It was only able to stay put after the seventh attempt, the white hare who slung it huffing a grunt of satisfaction once she stepped back and admired her handiwork.
Needless to say, the rickety old doors under the sink had never looked so festive.
As it turns out, decorating a cabin for the season while standing on four legs wasn't a simple task. That was the main reason the rabbit wasn't keen on attempting to do so last year — she was more dazzled in anticipation of the season's more carnal pleasures. Trading gifts, staving the bitter cold by an open fire, and most importantly, doing it all with someone who cares about you. With no prior exposure to it, the subtleties that went into the culture of Christmas were lost on her, but after getting to experience the catharsis of a decoration deftly hung, she was starting to get it.
The rope of tinsel was draped slightly asymmetrically, gnawed off at one end to match the width of the cabinet, more or less. That was the last of her pre-festivity responsibilities. Mika understood why Kalin had put in so much effort to bring all these decorations in the first place. The tinsel shimmered beautifully in reflection of the morning light, the walls' draft nudging its ends in emphasis of the mesmerizing display. She was fond of the green and red hues of the other coils she put up as well, making a lap around the cabin's single room. Their vibrancy reminded her of her favourite field to prance in, and the flowers it let bloom, which had been so cruelly suppressed by the snow.
She had never been fond of the season, really. But if humans could make the most of this bitter weather, then so could she. Kalin's suggestion to keep the winter's terrain shift exciting had served them well last year, but this time, she was hoping it'd go above and beyond.
Speaking of Kalin: left with a thoroughly-decorated room, Mika couldn’t help but wonder if he’d also finished his aesthetic duties. Just as she was about to jump through the open window and check, she saw the familiar flash of off-red fluff leaping onto its sill. The fox's ankles were all sprinkled with snow.
"How's it coming along, Mika?"
"It's going-" To reaffirm that she'd done a good job, she hastily panned over the room. "I think I'm doing pretty good. Right?"
The other hopped down to the nearing-decrepit floorboards. He first noticed that not a single decoration remained in the pile he left for Mika, strewn with precision around the cabin. None were set very high on the walls, like he'd seen in the local shops, but that was to be expected. There weren't very many pieces of furniture around that would give her footing, and she chose to play things safe on the ones that did. Still, there was no denying she worked her heart out.
"It's come along wonderfully," he praised earnestly. He padded from one streamer of tinsel to the next in admiration, eventually jumping onto the brick mantelpiece to straighten the flowery reef above and the fake red twig of holly on its edge. The smile on his face was practically beaming. "You've done great here."
The rabbit was moved by his praise as easy as dust in a windstorm, but she was scarcely the type to let it show. She wasn't the one who wanted to give Christmas a shot, so she trusted Kalin's judgment as to the competency of her efforts. "Um, thanks." She paused for a moment to watch the festive vulpine realign the berries and leaves; he was awfully meticulous. "Are you done with the tree?"
"Oh, of course." He hopped back to her height. "I wouldn't have checked in if I wasn't. Are you ready to come look?"
Mika nodded with a vague squeak of affirmation, and with that, she followed her foxy friend out the window. She was thankful for her coat of fur, but it wasn't enough to shield her from winter's bite completely, and she felt a chill running through her spine.
Their chosen tree was one among many, slightly closer to looking isolated than all the others that circled the cabin. It was tall and grand, though not any more so than the rest — the real separation was the effort Kalin put into dolling it up. Baubles of red, green and gold dotted not only the lowest layers, but every tapering stack of branches above, all the way up to the glinting star at the very top. From a human perspective, it was modest, though Mika was impressed intuiting that he'd have to climb up and down for every ornament — she could even spot where he shook all the pine needles out of his fur afterwards.
Still, even if each ornament was sparsely-placed, it was a far cry from what it looked like the previous year. No decorations at all? Could you even call that a Christmas tree? ...Well, Mika certainly could. She wouldn't have known the difference if Kalin wasn't so eager to explain how it "wasn't actually very Christmaslike at all".
"So? Awfully festive, isn't it?"
He was gazing at the tree as if it were the first time he looked back at his own handiwork. The rabbit stood to his side, unblinking.
"It's pretty, yeah." She wanted to say 'festive' wasn't the first word she'd use, but figured he'd get annoyed by her restating how little she'd internalized about the holidays.
"It is! You know, rustling through the branches wasn't as big of a hindr-"
"What does the star mean?" The white hare's gaze was fixed to it in particular.
"Hm? Oh, well, you know. It's a symbol of eternal solace. As if to say the stars are always going to be watching over you."
"...But it's just one star."
"Well, there are many trees with stars on them."
"Do I even need a star to watch over me? I already have you."
"Oh, shush." Playfully, Kalin nudged her cheek with his nose, practically forcing a smile over her curled lips. "I'm here year-round, but the stars take extra-special care of you this time of year."
"Heheh. Are the stars gonna keep me warm?"
"Do you want to open your present, or not?"
In concession that the day needs to move on, Mika hopped away from the tree's perfect viewing distance and under the shade of it, two packages "wrapped" (if that wasn't an offensively poor use of the word) with the same snowman-patterned paper. The boxes within weren't taped shut, and their flaps were hardly held down by the crinkled paper around it.
With a swish of his tail, the fox pushed the larger of the two boxes in the bunny's general direction using his snout. He was more excited to see Mika's reaction than she was to open it — in fact, she figured the anticipation of not knowing would be more thrilling than the gift itself. She was tempted to simply not open it, but Kalin's eager words of encouragement were too much.
Her teeth sunk into one of many loose flaps in the paper, and she hopped back, hind feet padding into the snow in springy little motions. The present's wrapping tore loudly, unveiling a strip of brown cardboard; she had to repeat the process a couple more times before she was able to knock the open box on its side.
"...What are these?"
"Sweaters!"
Two heaps of garishly-stitched fabric had fallen to the ground in front of her, one about twice the size of the other. Mika sniffed at the smaller one, predominantly green and patterned with large hearts around its torso.
"But aren't these the things humans wear?"
"Yeah! But these ones are for animals."
"That's weird. Where'd you find them?"
"Oh, they were left out in someone's yard, piled with a bunch of other trinkets for their pets. I know how much you hate the cold, so... I thought they'd fit us nicely."
The rabbit was trying to find where to fit her body in while she carried the conversation. "Us? You got one for yourself, too? But isn't this supposed to be my present?"
"I was going to snag them both anyway, you know." He winked, and padded up to his gift to himself. "Revealing them together makes it feel that much more special, no?"
"Oh, whatever."
Mika didn't care very much. She just wanted to see if she'd be able to fit into her new sweater — and once she succeeded, she immediately came to regret it. As it turns out, when a sweater's left to stew in what's more or less the open winter air for several days, it gets cold, a fact she was not slow to voice. Her shivering form was not an easy sight for Kalin.
"Well, um- hm. Why don't you get back inside? I'll follow you right in and we can start the fire early."
She liked this plan a lot. Hopping around with the chilly, thick-knit top was awkward, but not so much so that she had trouble getting back through the cabin's window. She laid with sprawled legs in front of the mantel, each white-furred limb struggling to keep still, gaze occasionally flitting to the window; as promised, Kalin took no more than a minute to return, Mika's present to him clutched between his teeth.
"You were right about the cold! Brrr. Sorry for putting you through that," he spoke after setting the haphazardly-wrapped package on the floor. The sweater he picked out for himself was still eliciting shivers from him, too. It was harder to discern a primary colour from its craftsmanship, garish stripes with no obvious sequence carrying threaded white patterns of countless shapes. Monocolour pink sleeves hugged down the full length of his front legs. "Are you holding up alright?"
Mika frowned some. "More or less. I wish you'd just warm the cabin up already, Kalin."
"I hear you, loud and clear."
He retrieved a matchstick from the top of a musty counter, dropping it next to the tent of chopped logs they'd set up together the day before. They were thankful for whoever abandoned this cabin, and their decision to leave perfectly good firewood stacked outside. A simple strike at it with his claw lit the pile ablaze, and the rabbit was immediately relieved.
"Better?"
"Mm... it's already nice and toasty."
The fox agreed. Stepping back from the open fire, he laid to the smaller critter's side and huddled close, met with her head immediately leaning into his neck. A tall ear relaxed and brushed against his cheek, making the ends of his mouth tug up in delight. Her quaking body was steadily calming down thanks to the oranged rays of heat reflecting off her face.
"This is what I was looking forward to," she murmured. "Just being here with you and the fire."
"Mm, I figured this would be your favourite part." He nuzzled the top of her head, nose rustling the thin layer of fur. "I'll stay here as long as you need."
She giggled quietly. "That would be nice... oh. But you still have to open your present, don't you?"
"I can do that here." Reaching to the side with his maw, Kalin dragged the small box to his front and nibbled scraps of paper off the top before tossing them away. Piece by piece, he got closer to revealing its contents, and Mika was not expecting the elated tension to be so crushing.
"...Oh? What are these?"
He knew what they were, but it took a moment to process. A sugar cookie was stacked on top of four more just like it in imitation of a pyramid, shaped like stars and topped with delightful pink frosting.
"...Do you like them, Kalin?"
"Five cookies? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to fatten me up."
"They're not all for you." Silence lingered for a few moments, and in them, she thought of a better comeback. "...And maybe I am. So you'll have more fluff to cuddle."
"Really? I would've said it's so I won't be able to chase you if I ever turn against you."
Mika huffed. "I trust you, dummy. Don't tease me like that."
"Aw, alright." Once again, he dug his nose into her head, and smiled into her fur. "It must've been difficult to get your paws on these. I really appreciate it."
The bunny felt a warmth in her cheeks. "...Yeah, thanks. This sweater is pretty nice, too, now that it's warm. So... thanks for that, too."
"You're very, very welcome."
Kalin took a cookie from the box and laid it out for Mika, though even as the festive treats laid ready in front of them, neither of them were over-eager to dig in. There was only so much firewood in the yard, so fending off the frostbite together like this was a rare opportunity. With the rabbit's head settled in pleasantly in the fuzz of the fox's neck, the only Christmas tune they needed was the consistent crackling of the tinder.
And so they laid for a while, enjoying the warmth of the fire, and even more so, each other.
"...Mm." The rabbit's quiet grunts were consistent, more or less, but Kalin knew her well enough to tell she was about to speak up. "...Why Christmas?"
"...Hm?"
"Well, you know so much about it, it's just... I dunno. It's a little weird. Where'd you pick up your fondness of it?"
He chuckled. "Oh, I don't know that much about it. I've just picked up some things from slinking around the suburbs. It's a fun idea, no?"
"I'm still not sure I get what the idea is. Why do humans do all this?"
He paused in thought. "...That's not an easy question to answer, you know."
"Why? Because everyone does it for a different reason?"
"It's more that I don't know?"
Nestled so comfortably against his body, Mika's eyes weren't open, but that statement was enough to put her on alert. "What?"
"I didn't even know it existed until last winter, to be honest. But it seemed like an exciting thing, so..."
"...Is that really it?"
"If you put it like that, it sounds like a poor reason, but... I know you don't like the season very much." He huffed gently. "It's a bit odd. Hares' coats usually adapt themselves to this sort of thing, but for as long as I've known you, you've never been able to through the season without shivering your poor limbs off. So... I figured there should be at least one thing about winter for you to look forward to."
Mika gazed up at her vulpine companion, stars practically in her eyes. "Well, it worked!"
"I'm glad you-"
"And now I have the sweater, too, so it's not gonna be so cold from now on, right?"
"That's the idea!" Grinning wide, Kalin felt a prideful warmth in his cheeks, pink and rosy. "This year, too. We'll have the whole forest as our stomping grounds. Christmas wasn't meant to be spent cooped up in a rickety old cabin all day, so... I hope you'll be able to enjoy yourself."
"I'll try." Mika nuzzled into his neck sweetly. "But for now, I just want to lie here with you and watch the fire burn out."
And the fox met her snout, nuzzling right back. "...I'd like that, too."