There was a peculiar atmosphere to East Saffron at night, amidst the yawning whelm of springtide’s approach. The gloam loomed dark and deep, almost pressingly— warm about him and touched with the scent of new growth, fathomless beneath the wide eaves of run-down precinct buildings. Without the snow to reflect the moonlight, everything just seemed that much darker.

It wasn’t grim by any means, though. The spring festival was tomorrow after all, and it showed— each and every street was bedecked with the trappings of coming celebrations, lanterns hung, tassels and ribbons strong from lamppost to lamppost, little tassels and plastic cutout decorations glittering beneath the night sky and amongst the looming buildings. It was a peaceful darkness, and excited darkness, cut by warm house lights and all the anticipation of tomorrow.

As he walked, he couldn’t not smile. It was just… a really nice night.

Of course, now that he knew that there was a gift-giving culture for the festival’s eve, he had to make something for Janus. He had a lot of options, but it’d probably be for the best if he kept it to something useful and simple. Janus would probably appreciate that more than a starsteel life-saving necklace… which, now that he thought about it, so would’ve Lexi, but whatever.

On a whim, he summoned one of his outfits from his storage ring, running the smooth coat over in his hands. He didn’t wear this one often— he’d ended up just relying on his domain and physique to bear the cold, so… he loosened his veil until he could access the full breadth of a first-step’s cultivator’s power and set to work. A thin blade of blazing qi sliced effortlessly through the fabric, cutting out a nice, long ribbon of the stuff. Then, with a makeshift needle— and he was really good at using a needle— he quickly started sewing in a nice little pattern with some shiny thread from the other part of the coat. Then for good measure he repeated the whole thing on a smaller scale for Aimi.

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The formations between the two of them were different— Janus’s was a bookmark that could identify the last five pages it’d been placed in via tricky aura mechanics that nobody but maybe

Lily would appreciate if he went over them. Not that he could, as it’d totally give the game away that he was only pretending to be mortal. Aimi’s, of course, was just a small little toy enchanted with barely enough power to tie itself into her hair once a day. She’d probably appreciate it…

Almost before he knew it, he’d arrived. Dismissing all his stuff back into his spatial ring with a wave of his hands, he reached up and knocked on the door, then stepped back. A few seconds and— he stepped back easily, rolling with the blow as Aimi launched herself at him. “Mr. Mingtian Mr. Mingtian! Janus Janus Janus Mr. Mingtian came! I told you he’d come—” she squirmed out of his grip, looking up at him with wide puppy-eyes. “What’d you get me this time? Lemme see lemme—”

“Aimi.” Aimi snapped her mouth shut, looking sheepishly at Janus as he leaned on the doorframe behind her. “We don’t ask guests about what they brought. It’s not polite. Now, what do you say to Mr. Mingtian?”

She shuffled her feet, looking down at the floor. “Sorry, Mr. Mingtian.” Then she turned around and darted straight back inside, leaving him and Janus alone on the threshold out of night.

Janus sighed, smiling… a happy sort of sigh, for all it was clearly a tired one too. “I’m glad you could make it. Frankly, I thought Yuxan would keep you locked up in his dungeon of boundless annoyance for the rest of the night.”

Mingtian chuckled a little, stepping into the warmth and light and slipping off his shoes, and luxuriating in the balmy aura of festivity that bedecked every part of the abode. “He would have tried, but Lexi was there to keep the annoyances away from me and he was probably too busy dealing with Guxi to give me all that much attention.”

Closing the door behind him, Janus beckoned him further into the house, leading him over to the kitchen— which was, if anything, even more decorated than the rest of the place. It wasn’t the professional, massive decorations of the auditorium, though— instead, it was something far more organic. Natural, in the way of families who set up their own decorations, for a festival their own, not… whatever Yuxan was doing.