Orihime hummed happily as she watched Kurosaki cuddling with his sisters. Being able to see him like this, soft-comfortable-loving the way Sora had been with her, was a rare privilege; Kurosaki still acted the delinquent that their teachers and classmates had labeled him, and that meant he rarely showed anything obvious.

(She’d gotten used to reading him the longer she spent around him, but sometimes… sometimes she wished he wasn’t so guarded.)

Tatsuki poked her in the side and whispered, “Moon later, silly,” as Orihime giggled and squirmed away.

She crumpled up a ball of wrapping paper to toss at Tatsuki’s head. “Then stop mooning over him!” she hissed back, indicating Kaito with a tiny gesture.

“What?! I am not!”

Orihime giggled at Tatsuki’s outrage and leaned away, sweeping her gaze over the others and catching Kaito’s curious look. She grinned brightly and shrugged, made a ‘what can you do’ gesture, then laughed as he rolled his eyes and pointedly looked away from her.

(Kaito was relaxing so much, changing from the skittish, jumpy young man that she and Tatsuki had first run into all those months ago and becoming more open, more welcoming, than she ever expected.)

(She was just glad that their friendship could help him heal, given all the things he’d done for them.)

“What are you two planning?” Kurosaki asked suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Orihime chirped with all the honesty she could muster. It was the truth after all, but she knew exactly how their whispering and her giggling looked.

(Neither of their crushes would go anywhere, she figured, but just having them was half the fun.)

(The other half was making Tatsuki blush over it.)

Kaito huffed and shook his head. “I don’t buy it but I’m also not going to question it. I don’t want to know, thanks.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Urahara asked in amusement.

“It learned when to step back and say no,” Kaito replied dryly, giving his father a look. “Unlike a certain someone I know.” Ignoring the pout that earned him from his father, Kaito motioned at the presents that Tatsuki and Orihime had at their side. “Why don’t you open those? Maybe it will distract Father from being the way he is.”

Tatsuki snickered at Urahara’s reaction to that and ripped open her gift, exclaiming happily as she uncovered a set of movies that she’d been wanting.

Orihime took a moment to lean over and admire the gift with her friend, hands absently peeling back the paper wrapping her own present to reveal the newest book in the series she’d been reading.

That kicked the others into gear: Kurosaki tore open his present to find a book on writing plays, Ishida found a brand new case for his sewing supplies, Kaito got a carving kit of all things—

(Though maybe it wasn’t Kaito’s present, precisely.)

(She didn’t miss the gleam of amber and the spiking of interest in Shiro’s reiatsu signature.)

—and on around the table. When the first gifts had been opened, Jinta leapt to his feet and scampered over to the tree again.

“Can we just pass them all out? Pleeeeaaase?” Jinta whined as he dug through the stacks of gifts and began to create arcing piles around himself. “This is so slow! We’re never going to get to eat at this rate!”

Urahara laughed and rose to his feet, padding over to Jinta and ruffling the boy’s hair. “Well, I suppose we can, but only if you pass them all out!”

“Yeah!” Jinta grinned up at Urahara and scooped up a stack of gifts to pass out. He darted back and forth, depositing precariously stacked presents next to whoever they belonged to.

Orihime frowned inwardly as Jinta kept going, counting up the gifts that were being placed by each person. She’d thought that most of the gifts under the tree were for the members of the shoten — especially Kaito, Jinta, and Ururu — but instead it looked like there were about equal number of gifts for all of them.

(And if she was counting right, probably some for both Kaito and Kurosaki’s inner spirits, too!)

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that; a present or two from Urahara was one thing, but being treated like his own family? She hadn’t expected that, hadn’t really done anything for anyone else beside small tokens she’d already passed out the day before. This was just… almost uncomfortable.

“Oi, Hat’n’Clogs, you didn’t have to do this you know,” Kurosaki exclaimed, staring at the stacks of gifts next to him. “This is—”

“Kurosaki-kun,” Urahara interrupted, “nothing is too much for all of you. After everything you’ve done and put up with, at least allow me to spoil my favorites a little bit?”

“You’re not going to win, you know,” Tatsuki told Kurosaki with amusement. She gave Urahara a pointed look as the man grinned, waved, and wandered out of the room, then continued with, “I agree with you, but you know what Hat’n’Clogs is like.”

“U-uhm… h-he… he does this every year,” Ururu said.

Jinta threw himself down in his spot, a present held tight in his hands and fingers already worrying at an edge. “Yeah! Christmas is the best! We always get lots of stuff, and amazing food, and we play games together and don’t have to do any chores!”

Ururu blushed but nodded happily in agreement, carefully picking open one of her larger presents.

It seemed like Jinta and Ururu had expected this from the beginning, but Kaito and his spirits certainly had not. His reiatsu was flickering between signatures as he trailed his hands over the stacks of gifts at his side. There was something almost reverent about his motions, and she caught him digging his fingers briefly into his outer thigh when he thought no one was looking.

Kurosaki’s signature was almost doing the same as well, shading towards White and lingering like that, his eyes taking on a golden sheen as they both stared at the gifts arrayed next to them.

(Kaito was like the wind, flowing from spirit to spirit as easy as breathing, like he had never known another way of life.)

(Kurosaki was more like fire, leaping and jumping in fits and starts, still trying to settle into a balance that worked for them.)

(Kurosaki would be incredible once he found his center, but Kaito… Kaito would always be the more terrifying of the two.)

(Wind drove the fire before it, after all.)

“Well?” Urahara asked, coming back to the table with a tray of fresh mugs in his hand. He set it down carefully and passed out another round of cocoa, collecting their empty mugs in the process then setting the tray aside. “Are you all going to sit around chatting about how awesome yours truly is, or are you going to open your gifts and see what’s inside?”

Jinto needed no more permission than that, tearing open the present in his hands with a cheerful cry. Ururu, Karin, and Yuzu followed his lead and soon everyone was opening gifts, accompanied by sounds of surprise and glee and happiness all around. Books and plant kits and games and crafting supplies and so many other things were shown off that Orihime quickly lost track of who’d gotten what.

How much time had Urahara put into this? How much effort had it taken for him to find and wrap all these different things?

(Why?)

(Why would he do this for so many unrelated children and teenagers?)

Except… her gaze caught on the awed expression that spread across Kaito’s face, as he slowly unwrapped a slim book and ran a reverent hand across the cover. Her gaze caught on Urahara’s wide, warm smile and the love in his eyes as he watched his son marvel at whatever he had been given.

(A look that didn’t dim as he took in the others around the table, watching them enjoy the things he’d chosen.)

(Oh.)

Orihime met Urahara’s gaze and smiled brightly at him before diving right back into her own stack of gifts, determined to set aside her worries and enjoy this.

(This was as much for Urahara as it was for them, she decided.)

(It was only right that he knew his efforts were appreciated.)

(Everyone deserved happiness, after all.)