Chapter Text
“Buenos días, querido.” Keith was awoken from a deep slumber by the sound of his boyfriend’s voice in his ear.
“Mmf… Let me sleep.” Before he could attempt to bury his face in the pillow and try to get back to sleep, Lance jumped up and shouted:
“Keith! It’s Christmas freaking day! Get your fine ass up right now!”
This got Keith’s attention and, albeit reluctantly, he rolled out of bed. He was glad he fell asleep in his trackies because then Lance was grabbing his hand and dragging him all the way downstairs, where the rest of the McClain family was gathered by the Christmas tree in the living room. The tree looked hideous. It was over 6ft tall, decorated higgeldy piggeldy with tinsel of purple, black, silver, red, green, and blue. Homemade clay baubles made by each of the children at different stages of their childhood weighed down alternate branches. Fairy lights adorned the tree, flashing violently in random patterns and, considering it was likely before 6am, Keith had to squint for a bit to get used to it.
Until Keith’s parents had passed, Christmas in the Kogane household had consisted of a meal in the afternoon, accompanied by their closest family friends. Keith’s dad had usually teamed up with his best friends to create the most amazing Christmas buffet, which they ate during the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Then, presents would be exchanged in the evening, an they would sleep under one roof, anticipating the fantastic neon lights that flooded Seoul on the big day.
The Christmas after his parents had died had been the hardest of Keith’s life. He had been living in foster care for nearly five months, as none of his parents’ friends had been in a position to take him in. The dinner had been nice, but too formal and strange. There were Christmas lights haphazardly strewn around the house, but they looked dismal and unprepared in comparison to the ethereal beauty of the lights in Seoul. There had never been a day when Keith had felt more alone.
It was the exact opposite to how he felt now. As soon as he reached the living room, his fingers still interlinked with Lance’s, he was offered a steaming mug of chocolatey coffee (which tasted like heaven). He ended up sat on Lance’s lap, atop a cushion which had flower shaped buttons amateurly sewn on. Sofy was leaning against his thigh, her thumb in her mouth as she eagerly awaited the presents which sat, patient, under the tree. Joey was sat with Matteo to the left of the tree, and Ester was sat with her grandad, whilst her mum was immaturely flicking Lance’s ear, until he finally retaliated; shoving her off the pouf upon which she was sat, her sleepy eyes widening in shock as she raced her hand against the floor to break her fall.
“Lance, hijueputa!”
Thankfully Adelita was preoccupied with sorting the presents under the tree into nine separate piles – one for each of those present. It was easy to tell which pile was for who. Lita had chosen different wrapping paper for each person – Keith found it easy to tell which pile was for which person. Except for the pile on the left, and the one second one the right, because the wrapping paper was exactly the same. And, if Keith was correct, the piles belonged to Lance and Matteo. He was about to ask Lance why his presents had Cars wrapping paper, when Adelita turned around, her hands laden with stockings. She was dressed in a pale blue dressing gown littered with white snowflakes, and her hair was no longer scraped back into a bun or French plaits, but falls crazily and freely down the shoulders.
“Right! Time for stockings.” She said loudly, and began passing the oversized, decorative socks out to the group, muttering to herself as she went.
“Ok, Matteo, that’s yours, and Sofy. Ester that’s for you sweetie, and Joey, yes ok, don’t snatch. Lance, and Keith, those are yours. And Ria there’s your one.”
Adelita watched on with a gleeful smile as her children (she fully considered Keith as one of her own now) opened their stockings with varying degrees of speed. Lance, of course, began pulling the tiny presents out with an admirable speed, as did Joey and Sofy. Matteo took slightly longer, and Ria took longer still as she helped her daughter open her carefully wrapped gifts. Despite this, it was Keith who took the longest, unaccustomed to the tradition, and touched by the inclusivity. He opened a chocolate orange, followed by multiple toy cars, a bag of marbles, and a tiny book of poetry, the last of which he was deeply touched by, since this meant Lance (who was one of the few who knew of his love for poetry) must have mentioned his admiration for prose to his mother.
Once the stockings were all opened, and multicoloured wrapping paper littered the carpet, Mr McClain clapped his hands once, and headed over to the piles of presents which sat next to the tree, and pulled a box shaped present from the pile on the left. He passed the present to Esther, who, with the help of Adelita, tore eagerly into the present, and an adorable little smile lit up her face as a Thomas the Tank Engine book was revealed.
The present opening continued for over an hour, and by the end of it, Lance was grinning, surrounded by books, wrapping paper, and a brand new laptop. Keith was sat next to him, in his lap, multiple books poetry, some tshirts from his favourite bands, and a notepad and fountain pen from Maria who wanted to encourage his writing. It was the present from Lance which the biggest smile to his face.
After tearing into the blue and red striped wrapping paper, a perplexed look fell across Keith’s face as two old diaries was revealed. Keith picked up the first. The bright blue was faded due to age, and when Keith opened it, the date on the very first page revealed it to be 4 years old. Despite its age, there were post it notes littered through random pages which had clearly been placed there recently. While the rest of the family tore into their gifts and thanked eachother, Keith began to leaf through the diary, picking out the marked pages. Keith wasn’t a very emotional being, but he struggled to keep his lip from quivering as he realised the contents of the notebook.
16 June 2013
Went and checked out Kingston college, and im pretty sure I’ll go there, if I can get the grades – the teachers seem really good, and the lab stuff they have is completely beyond anything ive used before.
Also, got a chance to check out that café, but it was kinda crap. Lost my wallet today too which is annoying because im gonna have to cancel and replace my card and get new id ☹
Keith flicked through the pages until he found another with a yellow post it note stuck to the edge.
21 June 2013
Found my wallet! This guy called Keith text me saying hed found it – apparently id dropped it in that café, and he works there. We met up today, and I was kinda sceptical, but holy shit is he hot. Don’t really get how someone with a name like keith could be so attractive but eh. – Keith shook his head and smiled disbelievingly as Lance at this - I have his number so we might meet up again? Hope we do, he seems like a nice guy.
17 July 2013
Saw Keith again! So pidge thinks that no one can be both hot and a nice person, but I really think that keith is. His smile is so fucking pretty and he makes me laugh and we like a lot of the same stuff. Even better, turns out hes going to a uni not too far from here, so hopefully we can see eachother more?
2 September 2013
So I started college today, I called ma and she cried. I really like it here so far. And KEITH CAME TO MEET ME AFTER. He didn’t tell me but he turned up after my last lesson with coffee and invited me back to his for a bit. We watched order of the phoenix, and I had a really good time. Ive only knwn him for like 2 months but we’re so locse already and I kinda wish we were more than friends. I don’t know if ill tell him, I don’t even know if we’ll stay friends for that long, and I don’t wanna ruin what we have. Also I don’t even know if hes gay and ahhh I don’t even know if I am. Eh
At this point, Keith smiled – the fact that Lance didn’t guess that he wasn’t straight after knowing him for nearly two months.
He continued reading through all the extracts relevant to him, the smile on his face growing brighter and brighter as he did.
12 December 2017
Ok so basically.I properly fucked up. I managed to ask the guy im in love with – Keith honest to god gasped at this point, Lance’s eyes distracted from his presents, and were fully focused on Keith’s face – to pretend to be my boyfriend and come stay with me for two weeks over Christmas. I don’t know what im gonna do
16 December 2017
We kissed. Keith and I kissed and i. am so in love with him but he didn’t mean it – Keith scoffed at that; of course he did – and it was amazing but it hurts because he was just doing it to practice and for an audience and I just. ugh
22 December 2017
I KISSED KEITH!!! And this time it wasn’t for show!! He wanted to snd it was the best kiss yet and i!!!! I just. Oh my god.
Keith wasn’t really one for blushing, but in that moment he went as red as the stockings that lay in a pile on the floor of the crowded living room.