Yixing finds the other man staring at him with teary eyes and he opens his mouth but says nothing, unsure of what's appropriate as the last question reverberates in the empty cafe.

It's Christmas again.” Luhan fills the silence instead. “I'm alone again.”

“He's gone, but he's still in your heart,” Yixing finally tries. “Those footprints that he had left?”

“But that's all that's left. That and the pain.”

Yixing has no clue what to say and the awful feeling of having failed Luhan weighs down on him. “It isn't your fault!” one part of his mind screams at him. The other chants, “Useless useless useless.”

He shakes his head. “Yes,” he says to Luhan. “And also the memories. Your happiest moments were with him, and I'm sure his were with you too.”

He doesn't say what he really wants to- that this is a type of cruel self-torture, that he really should move on. Yixing doesn't, because his role isn't to be the savior in Luhan's life. He's just a stranger who happened to be there, someone to absorb Luhan's troubles for a bit.

Luhan glances back out the window. The sky has started lightening to a gray and the snow from last night seems a little less white. “Oh well. Christmas is over. My day of remembering is over.” He nudges the empty cup. “Goodbye, Yixing. Thank you.”

He walks out, out the door and into the cold. And the stranger who became Luhan and poured his life into Yixing becomes a stranger once again.

Yixing straightens and decides to just skip sleep and let it become an all-nighter. He goes back to the counter where he found the instant-coffee mix and makes himself one. Walking out the door, following the other man's steps, he impulsively grabs a candy cane that is free for customer's to take That's what love is, bitter and sweet, he thinks as he lets it swim in the coffee and takes a sip.

And Christmas is bittersweet for the ones who spend it in memories, remembering the footprints in the snow.

much angst. and it's not even the holidays anymore.

thanks for reading and please leave comments!! <3