_______
"Yukito?" No answer, and Touya poked his head around the open front door of the Tsukishiro home. The living room was bright and warm, and he could smell the fading scents of tea and miso soup.
He made his way to Yukito's bedroom door, which was half open, offering a glimpse of the disaster area that lay beyond. It looked like Sakura's bedroom after the little monster had gone through one of those strange fits where she shouted at her stuffed animals and threw things about. It did not look like Yukito's normally neat personal space.
"Yuki? What happened to your room?"
"Oh, hello!" Yukito's voice echoed out of the wardrobe in the far corner. Various items of winter clothing accompanied the words, flying out of the wardrobe and adding to the strange wasteland of clothes. Tossed by Yukito, presumably, although Touya wouldn't have been surprised if they'd sailed out under their own power. He was incapable of being surprised by such things anymore.
"Your room looks like it's been hit by a mess-making demon."
Yukito's head suddenly popped out of a pile of jackets, a ferocious grin on his face. "Arrrgh! I am the King of all Mess-Making Demons! Bow down before me!" He was wearing a crown, too: a ludicrous yellow ski cap that plastered his hair down around his face. Touya couldn't help but laugh. It was a tiny, gruff laugh, as befitted his image, but it was a laugh, nonetheless.
"You mock the King of Mess-Making Demons?" Yukito asked sternly. Well, as sternly as he was capable of. In other words, politely. Touya laughed a little harder. He had to; Yuki's 'crown' had slipped down over one eye, and he looked less like a demon than a naughty puppy. With glasses. A naughty nearsighted puppy.
"Ah, fine, then. I shall visit my wrath upon you!" Yukito began to bombard him softly with clothes. First came what had to be the ugliest sweater on the face of the earth, a present from Sakura two winters ago which Yukito had worn cheerfully at least three times before he thankfully outgrew it. It was red and green and had white reindeer tracks all over the front.
"No! No! Not the sweater!" Touya shouted, ducking it as if it were some sort of magical creature come to life and likely to eat him. It was just possible, after all.
"Yes! The sweater! The King of Untidiness has no tolerance for disrespectful mortals. And then you shall have..." Yukito looked around. "This!" This was a ski jacket, followed closely by an ancient leg-warmer, several balled-up pairs of thermal socks, and then the barrage got too quick for Touya to identify the individual pieces. He could only tell that they were warm and didn't hit him with any real force.
"Mercy!" he cried, backing up against Yukito's bed. The Yuki-demon followed him, coming out of the wardrobe on all fours, only reinforcing his puppy-like appearance. Yukito seemed to sense this, because with a grin, he picked up a glove in his teeth and growled softly, before springing up and pushing Touya backwards down onto the bed.
Standing over him with both arms pressing Touya's shoulders down, Yukito made a truly ridiculous sight. The yellow hat was now switched so it had fallen over the other eye, but his visible one was twinkling with mirth. Touya could have pushed Yukito off at any time, of course; Yuki was light as a feather. But why would he want to?
"Do you yield to the power of Yuki, Master of Mess?" Yukito growled around the glove.
Touya nodded his surrender, and Yukito bowed back, dropping the glove on the bed. The yellow cap fell off entirely as Yukito bent closer and smiled. A tiny kiss, feather-light against his lips, and then Yukito was sitting next to him on the bed, laughing.
"What are you doing, O Master of Mess?" Touya asked, reaching out to smooth the fine hair that the ski cap had turned into a cloud of spiderwebs. "The kids want us to come outside and play in the snow with them. I wouldn't do it, but Sakura did promise to do all my snow-shoveling for a week."
Yukito nodded. "I know. I was just looking for the mate to this glove." He held up the black woolen glove he had been carrying in his mouth.
Touya looked around the room, shaking his head at the carnage caused by the search for one small glove, and realized something. "Yuki, I can see at least three gloves from right here. Can't you just wear one of those?"
Yukito shook his head solemnly. "None of those is the mate to this one, and you can't wear two gloves that aren't mates. They just don't fit. A glove and its mate belong together."
Touya smiled. It made sense, in Yuki-logic. "Yes, but there's a yellow one on the floor, and another on your bureau. Why not wear that pair? They go with your hat, anyway."
"Oh, but I like this pair best." Yukito slipped the black glove on his left hand.
"Why that one?"
"Because you gave them to me at the winter festival last year. Remember?"
"I remember." Yukito had been cold, and had spent all his money on hot cider for the little girls. Touya had bought him a new pair of gloves at one of the little stands along the festival walk. They had quietly held gloved hands for a few moments as they walked back up the lane looking for Sakura and Tomoyo.
"I remember how warm my hands were," Yukito said, and Touya remembered that, too.
Suddenly, with a smile, Yukito pushed him back down on the bed and crouched over him. He was momentarily afraid of the return of the Mess-Making Demon, but Yukito just lowered his face to Touya's and kissed him again, a little less gently than before. Then he reached behind Touya's head...
And pulled out the mate to his glove. "I knew it was here, you see." Yukito scrambled back off the bed, and put on the matching black glove.
"Of course. I never could hide anything from you," Touya answered, watching Yukito's face as the mischief there gave way to a soft smile of understanding. He held out his hand, and Yukito pulled him to his feet. Not letting go, the two of them walked together, through the warm house and out into the snow.