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“Merry christmas Haru-chan, Mako-chan!”
Makoto eyed Haru who was busy hanging up decorations before turning to smile at Nagisa who was dragging Rei behind him. “You can’t just walk into other people’s homes without even knocking, Nagisa-kun! It’s rude.”
The blonde stopped and turned to Rei with a frown, still holding onto his hand. “But Haru invited us, so it’s okay right?”
Rei sighed deeply and pushed his red rimmed glasses further up. “Let go of my hand, please,” he said, pulling away from Nagisa. “Stop being so grumpy, Rei-chan, we’re here to have fun and celebrate christmas with everyone!”
Makoto chose that moment to step between the two of them. “You’re right, Nagisa. I’m happy that you could come. Haru is, too.” The blonde looked past Makoto. “Is that really true, Haru-chan?” He asked in excitement, bouncing over to the black haired male who simply said “Whatever.”
Makoto sat down on a chair. He had already offered to help Haru at least four times, but the other had turned down his offer every time. “Isn’t Rin and Gou here yet?” Nagisa asked, looking around in the room. The brunet shook his head. “No, but I’m sure he’ll be here anytime now. Gou couldn’t make it though.”
The blonde sat down at the table with a big smile. “It’s been a long time since we hung out with Rin, don’t you think?”
“Well, he’s been busy with schoolwork at Samezuka. And we did go see a movie together a couple of weeks back, remember?” Nagisa giggled at that. “You’re right!”
“Why wasn’t I invited to this?” Rei wanted to know, sounding a little offended. “Oh, you should have been there, Rei-chan! Makoto was so scared, he was hiding behind Haru the whole time.”
Makoto made an unhappy noise. “It was your fault for choosing a horror movie, you know I don’t like those!”
“That is what makes it so funny,” the blonde said before laughing out loud. It took a while to make him stop. He was clutching his stomach, gasping for air.
“It sure sounds like you all had fun.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry Rei. We only didn’t invite you because you told us it was your father’s birthday, otherwise we would have, of course.” Makoto smiled at him. Rei nodded thoughtfully. Now that he thought about it, it had actually been his father’s birthday a couple of weeks back.
Haru had just finished putting up the last decoration. The whole house was filled with lights and various christmas decorations. “Shall we start eating?” he said, not even bothering to wait for an answer before heading over to the kitchen. Makoto got up quickly. “Wait, Haru, what about Rin?”
“He’s late, as usual. It’s his own fault,” he said before lifting the lid of a pot.
Makoto was about to say something more when Rin came into the room, panting. “Sorry I’m late, I missed the train so I had to get someone to drive me- Wait are you starting without me?” Makoto held up his hands, shaking his head frantically. “No, no, we wouldn’t do that.” Rin raised an eyebrow and walked over to Haru. “This idiot over here certainly would. I can’t believe you. I thought we were friends again.”
“Does everyone just walk in here without knocking?” Rei asked, sighing deeply as if he had just met a big problem.
They all sat down at the table after that. Haru carried all kinds of food out of the kitchen, not just mackerel to everyone’s joy.
The house smelled of christmas, Makoto had no other way of explaining it. A pair of chopsticks was suddenly stuffed in his mouth. “How does it taste?”
He turned to Haru who was sitting beside him and blushed lightly. “Haruuu,” he whined. The other teen looked as stoic as ever. “What?”
Rin made a sound as if he were about to throw up, making Makoto very aware about that fact that they now had everyone’s full attention. Rin rolled his eyes. “Get a room.”
“But, Rin-chan! Aren’t they cute?” Nagisa grinned and winked at Rei.
It had been more difficult to hide it than the brunet had expected, ever since himself and Haru had decided to be in a relationship. He still couldn’t really believe it. When he had told Haru the truth, that he was in love with him, he had never been expecting it to be mutual. He had only dared to hope that the other wouldn’t hate him, or call him gross, so that when Haru had told him not only that he felt the same way, but that he wanted them to be boyfriends, he had been so happy that he had kissed the other.
It had been awkward at first, of course, but Makoto didn’t regret it one bit. They had never really told any of their friends about it. Haru didn’t want them to know. It had hurt Makoto a bit at first, thinking that the other was embarrassed about it, but Haru had denied it when he asked about it.
“Makoto and I are together.”
The brunet felt like he was about to self combust of embarrassment. He was pretty sure that he was blushing even more now than he had after he had kissed Haru the first time, that saying something.
Nagisa’s giggling broke the silence. “Well of course you are, we all know that!”
“What?” he asked, feeling dumb.
Rin smirked. “We sort of caught you two kissing and being all lovey dovey after swim practice the other night. You know, the one we had over at Samezuka.”
Makoto remembered that. “But you all left before us?”
“Yeah we did, but Nagisa forgot his towel. He went back to get it when he saw ‘Mako-chan and Haru-chan being super duper cute!’ as he said it. And then he went back to get us too, including Gou for the matter.”
“I tried to stop them, I really did,” Rei added. He sounded like he had just committed a terrible crime.
The others had known for weeks. Makoto didn’t really know what to say. He wasn’t angry at them, it was just confusing why they hadn’t told them that they knew already.
“And you’re all okay with it?” He asked nervously.
“Of course we are, you guys are super duper cute!”
“Truly beautiful.”
Rin nodded. “Why wouldn’t we be? Gou thinks it’s awesome.”
Makoto’s eyes went to Haru, who was sitting still, looking totally unaffected by the news. Eventually, Haru took a breath and rolled his eyes.
“Why do you look so shocked? You wanted them to know, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, well… But you wanted to keep it a secret, are you really okay with them knowing?”
Haru nodded slightly. “I took Nagisa’s towel, making sure he would forget it, didn’t I?”
“You did what!?”
Makoto almost choked on his drink. Haru had planned this? Rin had to hold back his laughter, and even Rei smiled a bit. Nagisa however, didn’t seem too amused about it.
“Haru-chan! How could you?” the smallest of them started whining.
“Come on, Nagisa, it was only a towel, you are such a drama queen.” Rin rolled his eyes at him.
“It was my favorite! The pink one with penguins on!”
He seemed absolutely horrified by the thought of losing it. “You got it back, didn’t you?” Makoto smiled gently, having almost forgot about the earlier revelations.
The blonde shook his head, telling them that he had forgot about the whole thing when he saw them together.
“And that is exactly why I choose to take yours. I knew you would babble to the others right away.”
“Hey, I can keep secrets too! Well, maybe not all the time but...”
Nagisa forgot about the whole thing soon enough, and when they decided to open the presents from each other he was back to his old enthusiastic self, almost dying of laughter when Rei opened a present containing a pack of condoms and lube. He denied it was from him, though.
When the others had to go home to be with their families, Makoto stayed behind to help Haru clean up.
“You don’t have to, you know. Go be with your family if you want to.”
Makoto smiled and picked up another piece of decorating. “No, I’ll help you, period. Besides, I was planning on taking you home with me.” A light chuckle escaped his lips. “If you want to, of course. My family would be happy to see you.”
Haru made a sound, mumbling something under his breath. The brunet knew he had won this one.
“Haru, why did you tell them?”
“About what?”
“About us.”
The oldest stopped his movements for a while, standing completely still. “When you asked me why I didn’t want them to know, and if it was because I was embarrassed…” He stopped, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know. I just felt like telling them, you seemed sad about it. And I don’t really mind them knowing, anyway. I just didn’t know how we were supposed to tell them.” He looked away, continuing to wash the dishes.
Makoto felt himself smile once again. A lot of people didn’t know it, but Haruka could be incredibly sweet sometimes.
It was late when the two of them arrived at the Tachibana’s.
“Did you have fun with your friends?” Makoto’s mother smiled at the two boys from the chair she was sitting in. Makoto nodded.
“That’s good. I’m glad to see you here, Haruka, we haven’t seen that much of you lately.” Her eyes were just as gentle as Makoto’s as she looked at the raven. “Are you staying overnight?”
Haru nodded. He might as well stay over.
“Let’s go to my room, shall we?” Makoto suggested as he started walking towards it, Haru followed soon after.
The room was familiar and he liked it much more that his own. This room was welcoming and bright, and it sort of smelled like his boyfriend, too. His own wasn’t like that at all.
He sat down on the bed. “Want to play some video games?” Makoto asked, mostly out of politeness.
He didn’t really feel like playing, if he were to be honest, so he was relieved when Haru declined. His arm snuggled around the back of the raven, pulling him closer. It felt good, being close like that. Even though those things were new in the relationship, they also sort of weren’t. Haru and himself had always snuggled together on the bed, even when they were kids. Most of the time Haru would pull away, complaining, but Makoto had a feeling that he secretly liked it.
This time Haru sat still, resting his head upon the brunet’s shoulder. It was dark outside, and if he he looked out of the window he knew he would be able to see stars.
Haru was fast to sit up normally when the twins came inside, grinning ridiculously wide. Ran climbed up on her brother’s lap, clinging to him. “Onii-chan, you haven’t opened your present yet!” She complained as she handed him a box wrapped in red christmas paper.
“Oh, is it from you?”
“Yes, and Ren!” Ren nodded enthusiastically.
Makoto began to unwrap the box. “I wonder what it is…,” he mumbled as he opened it. Inside was a painting. Ran took it from him and pointed at it. “See, we made it! That’s you,” she continued as she pointed on one of the four people in the painting. “And that’s me and Ran!” Ren added quickly.
“Who’s the last person, then?” Makoto wondered.
Ran rolled her eyes. “It’s Haru, dummy!”
The raven leaned over to look at the painting.
“We made one for you too,” Ren reassured, looking proud as he handed over another gift to Haru. “I made this one, and Ran made Onii-chan’s, but they look the same!”
Haru opened it, and found a painting similar to his boyfriend’s. “Thank you,” he said. The twins giggled. “Well, mom says that it’s bedtime now.” Ran jumped down from her brother’s lap. “Goodnight!” the twins said in unison before heading out of the room.
Haru went back to resting his head on Makoto’s shoulder, studying the painting. It was really good, actually.
“That was cute don’t you think?” Haru nodded. They sat in comfortable silence for a while before Makoto spoke again.
“Did you have a nice christmas, Haru?” The voice was quiet this time.
“Yeah, and I still don’t regret that we told them,” he added, knowing Makoto was worrying about it.
“I’m glad. Thank you for doing that for me.”
Haru shrugged, putting his arm around the other’s waist, making him lay down. Then he kissed him softly, taking his time to enjoy Makoto’s soft lips. They had gotten much better at it since the first few times. It wasn’t awkward or embarrassing anymore.
Now it was just really, really nice.