Chapter Text
It’s Christmas, and Kirito is having a crisis. And the only person he can blame for that right now, is Asuna.
Alright, technically it wasn’t her fault. But he’ll still blame her. For his own security.
It all starts with a reunion.
Nothing much happens at Aincrad Academy. It’s a relatively normal school, and whatever rumors that circulate about its students and faculty are simply just that, rumors. Besides its curriculum and its prestige as one of the best high schools in the prefecture, as well as its ridiculous entrance exam, Aincrad Academy is probably just that, a typical school.
So when there are rumors that there isn’t just one, but two new transfer students enrolling in the middle of the school year, it certainly does catch everyone’s attention.
“What do you think they’ll be like?” Klein asks one day, leaning against Kirito’s own desk. His blazer is undone and his tie is messily thrown together. It’s too early in the morning to even bother with this, and Kirito fights to urge to slam his face back down onto his desk to take a quick nap. At least, until homeroom ends and class finally begins within the next few minutes.
The girl next to Kirito, Asuna, frowns. “You too?” She’s probably one of Kirito’s, if not, his closest friend, and though there are rumors in the school about whether they’re together or not, they both somehow take it in stride. Besides, it’s not that he can’t admire how pretty she is, but he just isn’t interested in romance in general.
Klein shrugs. “I mean, you gotta have mad credentials if you wanna get into this school, especially if you transfer. You can’t blame us for wondering.” He then obnoxiously waggles his eyebrows in an exaggerated way, but Kirito thinks it just looks ridiculous. “I hope one of them is a girl.”
Asuna rolls her eyes fondly, but Kirito forces back a groan. “Does it really matter?” he mumbles into his arms, lifting his head up a smidge.
“Aww, lighten man, I’m just teasing,” Klein laughs.
It isn’t until right after that that the teacher enters the classroom, and Klein scrambles back to his seat at the other side. On the other hand, Kirito tries to hide a yawn from the teacher.
Kirito slowly straightens up his back as Asuna turns to face the front from her own seat. As the student representative of their class, she tells everyone to rise up and bow to the teacher. Polite pleasantries are exchanged and as everyone sits back down in their seats, Kirito notes that the teacher is glancing at the door. She’s probably signalling at someone to get their position ready.
“As you may know,” the teacher begins. “We have two new transfer students in our school today. One of these students will be in this classroom with us, but I expect you to treat them both with utmost respect, understood?”
“Yes, sensei…” everyone echoes. It’s pretty much common sense as of this point, and Kirito briefly wonders if he can sneak in a few more minutes of sleep while the teacher introduces the new student.
“Good. You may enter now,” the teacher says. Kirito buries his head back down into his arms and closes his eyes.
The next thing he hears is the sound of footsteps and some giggles, almost as if this new student was a new animal that the rest of the students will gawk at. Perhaps the new student is shy, or maybe they actually have a confident smile on, judging from the comfortable atmosphere. Still, it’s not like Kirito really cares.
“Alright, now introduce yourself,” the teacher finishes. There’s a brief moment of silence, and the new student is probably gathering their thoughts. Maybe this student really is shy.
“Um…” the student says. Judging from their voice, the new student is a guy. That might’ve dashed Klein’s hopes. He hears some movement, and the student is probably shuffling his feet, but a voice in the back of Kirito’s head is screaming at him to just lift his head up.
There’s another silence, and Kirito can just imagine an awkward smile on this student’s face, and then the student finally speaks again.
“Hi… I’m Eugeo. N-nice to meet you!”
Huh, not bad for an intro. A bit of stuttering here and there, but Kirito can’t really blame the guy. It’s not like Kirito would’ve been able to do any better really. It’s probably nerve wracking to introduce yourself like that in front of a bunch of other strangers and—
Wait. Wait a minute.
With a push from his desk, Kirito backs up and lifts his head. His chair screeches against the floor and it pierces the classroom. His notebook falls off his desk in his haste as well, but that wasn’t important. His head spins briefly from the blood circulating from his previous downed positioned, but he can’t bring himself to care either.
In the front was another boy, the same age as him. A boy with soft-looking flaxen hair that curls up in the ends and cream colored skin. But what Kirito notices the most is his sea-green eyes.
Kirito knows it’s been years but it’s unmistakable. It’s got to be him. There’s no other way.
“Eugeo!?”
It didn’t take long for Eugeo to join their little group of friends.
Much to Kirito’s pleasant surprise, the other transfer student is Alice, his other childhood friend. There’s not a lot that Kirito can remember from his childhood days in Rulid, but he knows he remembers those days fondly, and Asuna comments that he’s strangely ecstatic to be reunited with them again.
He can tell she doesn’t judge him though, as he has mentioned both Eugeo and Alice in passing to her. When he first moved away during middle school, Asuna had been one of his first friends, and it wasn’t unusual for him to miss his old childhood friends. There was no way to contact either of them either, as they’d lost each others phone numbers and he lost their addresses for the letters he would send. It didn’t help that his mother lost their parents’ contact information too, which separated them even further. Eventually Kirito once again grew out of his shell, but it didn’t mean he missed them any less.
So he knows Asuna is just teasing, and she does her best to integrate his two friends in their friend group. Though to be frank, Kirito doesn't think they even need any help.
Due to Eugeo’s courteous nature, it doesn’t take long for him to befriend the rest of the group, and Kirito notes that he gets along especially well with Asuna’s best friend, Yuuki. Despite this, he’s a bit more reserved than Alice, who is nothing short of a whirlwind, her charismatic personality charming them all easily. Kirito doesn’t doubt that they’ll both fit right in, and feels a surge of pride.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were moving here!? That would’ve saved so much embarrassment I had in that classroom…” Kirito whines at Eugeo, though a part of him is just teasing. He knows Eugeo would never have had the chance to give Kirito a heads up, but he can’t help but want to talk about anything and everything with him again. Sitting around them are some of his other friends including Klein, Asuna, and his sister Sugu. He finds himself pretty hyper-fixated onto Eugeo and Alice though, trying to make up for lost time.
Clearly, Eugeo doesn’t get Kirito’s joke, as he stops his ongoing conversation with Yuuki. He blinks confusedly. “How was I supposed to know you were here? It’s been years since we all last saw each other in person.”
“I didn’t even know you had other friends back then Kirito. Why didn’t you tell us about them,” Klein teases. Kirito neglects to mention that the only reason he never brought them up was because he missed them too much.
Eugeo recovers quickly from his early confusion to grin at Kirito. “What? You never mentioned us at all? ” He scoffs afterward. “Were you too good for us?”
From his side, Alice lowers her voice a bit in a pretend whisper. “He probably never talked about us because he didn’t want to think about the stupid things he did back then anymore.”
“Ooooh do tell!” Yuuki cheers. “We never get to hear about this stuff! He was so moody and broody when he first moved here.” Asuna pats her on the back as Yuuki childishly crosses her arms.
Kirito fights the urge to pout. “I was not moody, and I wasn’t broody either!” he retorts. “And besides, I never did anything stupid back then. You guys are probably just making that stuff up.”
“I don’t know…” Eugeo says, trailing his voice off while feigning innocence. “There was this one time when we were younger…”
“Oh! Wasn’t he like, really into flowers back then? He’d always want to go to the botanical garden in our school.” Alice perks up and claps her hands.
“Yea, he was,” Sugu confirms. “God, it was so annoying. Mom never knew what to do with him.”
Kirito can faintly remember those times. Since Rulid was located in a rural area, there was a lot of nature and greenery. Back then, the school had its own garden at the back, and students were tasked to take care of the plants that grew back there. For some reason, he had really enjoyed tending to those flowers, but he also had fond memories of him working with Eugeo and Alice back there. But this teasing…
“Yea, so what?” Kirito frowns. “I liked them. What about the flowers?”
“Well...” Eugeo hums, tilting his head to the side. “There was this pond right? And there were always these cute little frogs that would hop around on these giant lily pads. I think Alice was really enamored with those frogs. She wanted to take one home as a pet.”
“Oh yea, I did, didn’t I. I think I was— Wait, is this what I think this is about?” Alice asks, but then smirks. She tries to hide it behind a giggle, masking herself off with her golden hair, but she fails miserably. Kirito tries to remember what she’s picked up on, but he can’t recall anything.
“Mhmm,” Eugeo continues. “So Kirito, for some reason, really really wanted to impress Alice. And one day, he told me he was gonna catch one as a gift for Alice. So he’s standing on this ledge eyeing this tiny frog down, and for some reason is very interested in a nearby lilypad,” Eugeo grins at Kirito. And suddenly—
“Oh no, nononono you’re not gonna say it Eugeo, please,” Kirito begs. He suddenly remembers that embarrassing moment that he had locked away into the back of his brain. That stupid time where he was under the impression that he could’ve—
“And then this small 8-year old kid just jumps onto the lily— Argh!”
In a desperate attempt to get Eugeo to shut up, he tackles him, and suddenly they’re rolling on the ground. Kirito muffles his hand onto Eugeo’s mouth and Eugeo scrambles to get back up. Faintly, Kirito can hear the loud laughter and cheers from his friends, and for a moment, he feels like he’s eight again and everything is perfect. Eventually after scuffling about, he manages to straddle Eugeo, looming over him by pressing his hands on his shoulders.
“Hah!” Kirito crows, ready to preen over his victory. But then he gets a good look at Eugeo, who’s still giggling in that soft voice of his. His cheeks are smudged with dirt and are flushed into a faint light pink color. His flaxen hair is messy, and pieces of grass are stuck in their curls. His arms are splayed out, relaxed and content and he’s huffing, sweat piling at the edge of his forehead from their wrestle.
And then he opens his sea-green eyes and his lips spread into a gentle smile and Kirito’s heart thumps.
Oh. Oh no.
(From the side, he doesn’t see Asuna smirk knowingly.)
Months pass, and October turns into November, and November turns into December, and that goddamn thumping hasn’t stopped.
Everytime Eugeo smiles, or flushes, or whenever his hair would get in the way of his eyes and he’d attempt to blow it away from his forehead and then he’d let out a sheepish laugh, Kirito would always have to resist the urge to do something, anything, to stop the pounding in his chest.
At first, Kirito’s confused. Because he’s never felt like this before. He’s never cared about romance, and has never considered it that much before. But for some reason, the one time it did matter, it was because of his childhood friend.
And it wasn’t Alice, but out of all people, Eugeo.
Which leads Kirito to the current predicament he is at right now.
He’s on the phone with Asuna, who’s out doing Christmas shopping in preparation for the party at Klein’s place a week later. At first, he’s helping her choose which gift to give to her Secret Santa (it’s Sugu), since according to her, he’s apparently better at coming up with presents than she (to which, he doesn’t believe). Eventually, their conversation turns into Kirito’s um… infatuation with Eugeo, and all of a sudden, he can’t shut up.
“It’s so dumb!” he complains into the Facetime. He then remembers Sugu is also in the house somewhere and doesn’t want her to overhear, so he lowers his voice. “What am I even supposed to do with this? It’s like everytime he does something, I can’t help but pay attention to him.”
“I dunno,” Asuna responds. She swiftly ducks past a family that passes her by, before turning back to her phone. “You do stare at him a lot. I’m surprised he hasn’t noticed,” she laughs at the end.
“Ughhh.” Kirito collapses onto his bed, thinking that this is it. This is how he’s going to spend the remainder of his high school years, pining over his best friend that he had just reunited with and can’t get out of his mind. God it’s so dumb.
For a brief moment, he contemplates how much easier it would be if he had fallen for Asuna instead. She’s pretty. Smart. And incredibly loyal. Perhaps in another world, they would’ve gotten together as a couple and gotten married. Maybe even have a single daughter and live in a nice house that also had a white-picket fence.
But this isn’t the world either of them live in. And then he remembers how pretty, smart, and loyal Eugeo is too.
“Ughhhhh,” Kirito repeats again, his groan much louder than it was before.
Asuna giggles once again, obviously taking pleasure in his existential crisis. “Maybe you should do something about it,” she suggests. “Christmas is coming up. This is a perfect opportunity!"
“Yea,” Kirito sarcastically mutters. “Like Christmas is gonna help me out any better. It’s practically one of the most romantic holidays here in Japan.”
“Which means it’s the perfect opportunity to confess!” she finishes. “I’m almost 99% certain he feels the same way.”
“Yea, no,” Kirito ends. “I’m not taking risks and jeopardizing our friendship. I just got him back.” He stops. “As well as Alice,” he adds in the end. Asuna pretends not to notice. He knows she’s definitely going to hang that over his head soon.
“I passed by a flower shop earlier by the way,” she then drawls, feigning innocence that’s eerily similar to how Eugeo does it. “I checked it out earlier, and you wanna know what I found in there?”
“Pray tell Asuna, what did you find.”
“You better thank me. I’m doing you a very big favor telling you this.”
“Asuna, please, just get to the point.”
She flits her eyes back and forwards, as if she’s worried that someone is going to overhear her. She waits for a dramatic pause, and then grins at the end. “I found… mistletoe.”
Kirito stops again.
This is officially, the dumbest thing Kirito has ever done.
At the moment Asuna tells him about the mistletoe, the last thing he remembers is grabbing a backpack with some cash, and rushing off to meet up with her at the mall. It was the perfect idea! If he and Eugeo get caught under the mistletoe and Kirito gets the feeling that Eugeo doesn’t return his feelings, he can simply just play it off for fun! And so, together they go in and buy a bundle of mistletoe and march out of the flower shop, trying to develop Kirito’s “master plan.”
Kirito can say that by the time the party starts, he doesn’t even have a master plan.
He thinks Alice has caught wind of his debacle as well, as she at one point, arrives early at Klein’s place and catches him placing a mistletoe on the wall. Unlike Klein, who Kirito simply tells him the mistletoe is for fun, Alice knows exactly what Kirito is doing.
Kirito tries not to let it get to him. Who knows, maybe Alice will help him as well.
She doesn’t.
The moment Eugeo enters the room, with a rather large present and a pile of boxed food in his arms (Kirito briefly wonders who Eugeo’s Secret Santa is and hopes its his), he is immediately under the mistletoe, and Alice definitely notices. As Eugeo is juggling with his food (really, why did he not bring a bag or something?), Kirito approaches him to help him out.
“Here, I got you,” Kirito says, trying his best to be suave. He sincerely hopes he does sound suave as he takes some of Eugeo’s stuff.
“Thanks Kirito,” Eugeo then smiles, and Kirito tries his hardest to not stare for too long and looks away. He can see the mistletoe right above their heads, and waits to Alice to say something, anything, and give a cue. Because as much as Kirito loaths to admit it, he’s too embarrassed to say so himself.
However, Alice doesn’t say anything. Instead she smirks at him and then goes, “Wow! Tieze! Eugeo! You guys are under the mistletoe!”
Just like Alice mentions, right behind Eugeo is Tieze, an underclassman of theirs. She’s a cute red-headed girl who Kirito knows has a pretty obvious crush on Eugeo as well, and her face turns into the color of her hair just from Alice’s words. Meanwhile, Eugeo seems confused, but then he looks up and his eyes widen. His cheeks then turn into a rosy pink.
“You guys know what that means,” Alice sings, looking at Kirito dead in the eye.
Kirito fights the urge to scream.
Alright, so the first attempt does not go well, and Kirito has the unpleasant opportunity of witnessing both Eugeo and Tieze fumble under the mistletoe. It ends with Tieze nervously confessing her feelings for Eugeo, and although Eugeo gently rejects her, he does press a quick kiss onto her cheek. With that, she flushes beet red once more (much to Kirito’s dismay), and then Eugeo just saunters off, taking the pile of food boxes from Kirito’s arms in the process.
From the side, Asuna stares incredulously at Kirito. What happened? She seems to be saying with her eyes.
I don’t even know, Kirito signals back before scurrying off after Eugeo.
This time, he’s in the kitchen with Eugeo, who has just now set the food boxes onto an empty contour. “Hey, help me out with these,” he says as he grabs a few plates from the cupboard.
“I— just—” Kirito finds himself stuttering, before clearing his throat. “You’re… not embarrassed by that?” He stands by next to him and takes a plate as well. Their hands brush.
Eugeo blushes, from the kiss or the hands, Kirito doesn’t know. “Well, of course I’m embarrassed,” he wipes at his cheek, almost like he’s trying to push down its redness. “But what’s done is done y’know? I’ve never been confessed to before though, so it’s surprising I guess,” he comments in the end.
Kirito blinks. “ You ? You’ve never been confessed to before?” He finds it hard to believe that someone this amazing had never received a single confession in his life. And the fact that he had so smoothly kissed Tieze’s cheek earlier had Kirito assume that Eugeo has had at least some experience already.
“I just didn’t want to be rude or embarrass her either, y’know?” Eugeo awkwardly mumbles. He opens up a piece of tupperware and plops down a pile of macaroni salad into a nearby bowl.
“I mean, I get that, but like,” Kirito tries to find the words he wants to say, but he can’t exactly figure it out. He takes the bowl of macaroni salad and pushes it to the side. “I just find that hard to believe.”
“What’s it to you? It’s not like I’m anything that special,” Eugeo laughs, but Kirito frowns at his words. It sounds self-deprecating. Kirito notes that his hand is right there, and he longs to grab it.
“Well um…” Kirito starts. “I’m sure many people think otherwise.”
“If you say so…”
There’s a bit of an awkward silence, and Eugeo continues to pour food into the separate plates. His brow is furrowed, almost as if he’s burying himself into his thoughts. Without even thinking, Kirito places a hand onto his wrist.
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I do think you’re really special,” Kirito finds himself saying without a second thought. “Anyone would be lucky to be with you, friend or otherwise.”
Eugeo stares at him and blinks once. Then twice. Before that smile that makes Kirito’s knees weak graces his lips. “Thanks,” he says, and it’s only one word, but Kirito can already feel his heart fluttering like usual.
His hand still stays on Eugeo’s wrist. Eugeo doesn’t seem to be moving any time soon, and instead continues to smile at Kirito. Maybe this is it. Maybe, if Kirito is able to keep up this mood for just a minute or two longer, perhaps he’ll be able to say the words he’s been dying to say for the past few months. It’s the perfect atmosphere, and Kirito can only faintly hear the others from outside the kitchen, so he knows they’re alone. Maybe, if Kirito had a mistletoe—
From behind Eugeo, he sees Asuna. And she’s holding a mistletoe.
She notices the mood right away, and starts gesticulating wildly at the plant she’s holding. Kirito tries not to give away her location to Eugeo (but at the same time, it’s hard to look away from him). And so, she quietly grabs a chair and stands on it, trying to find a discrete way to hang up the mistletoe without Eugeo noticing.
This is it, Kirito thinks. All he has to do is wait for Asuna to finish taping the mistletoe on the wall, and get him and Eugeo under it when they leave to give out the food. And then Kirito can casually comment on the mistletoe underneath their heads and Eugeo will send him a grin and—
“W-wahh!” Asuna’s screech interrupts his thoughts. And she promptly thumps onto the ground.
Eugeo jumps at Asuna’s scream and whips around. “A-asuna!?” He rushes toward her, where she’s laid on the ground. “Oh my god, are you okay? Did you hurt your back!?”
She groans and cracks her back, some pieces of her hair catching under her arms. Kirito rushes over to help her up as well. “U-um, I’m fine!” she quickly recovers. “I-I ended up slipping, my bad!”
Eugeo frowns. “I don’t know, that sounded like it hurt.” He eyes at the chair that’s thrown on the ground next to Asuna. “Weird, that chair wasn’t here before. Did you trip over that?”
“Yea… I guess I did haha… I’ll be okay, let me just...” Asuna tries to play off. She’s looking at the door and back, trying to find an escape route to give Kirito some alone time with Eugeo.
Unfortunately, her attempt doesn’t work. “No, don’t. You should get that checked on,” he protests. “I’ll go find someone, just hold on for a moment!”
And so in a flash, Eugeo leaves, and he doesn’t even notice the mistletoe tossed onto the ground next to the chair.
Once he’s gone, Asuna shares an apologetic glance with Kirito. His second attempt is a failure.
This time. This time, for sure.
They’re exchanging Christmas presents two hours later, and Kirito is determined to catch Eugeo. Without much effort, he sees Eugeo at the corner of the room, looking around for someone, probably for his Secret Santa.
Much to Kirito’s luck, he actually drew Eugeo for his own Secret Santa, so it isn’t suspicious at all to approach him during this.
What is suspicious however, is the mistletoe that was dug deep in Kirito’s front pocket. It’s like it’s burning pass the seams of his pants and into his skin. That’s how aware he is of it in his pocket.
He’s convinced that the only other way to get this through to Eugeo, with no problems arising, is just to be direct himself. He’s going to get this message through to Eugeo, whether he wants to or not. And nothing could be more obvious that shoving a mistletoe over their heads after exchanging a present.
“Oh, Kirito!” Eugeo pushes a hand through his curls. He looks pleasantly surprised. “You got me as your Secret Santa?”
“Heh, yea, I did,” Kirito responds, handing over the wrapped present to Eugeo. While Kirito’s nervous, he’s also excited for Eugeo to see what’s inside. He gives him a wink. “Come on, open it! I spent a lot of time looking for a good present for you.”
“Wait, right now?”
“It shouldn’t take long, come on!”
And as Eugeo bends down to open up the present after putting down his own Secret Santa gift (Kirito still hopes it’s his), and begins to unwrap it. Inside is a scrapbook that Kirito is pretty proud of, full of photos and anecdotes from their childhood and some from the recent months in Aincrad Academy as well.
Eugeo’s eyes widen as he studies the book, slowly flipping through each page. “How…?” he breathes in disbelief. “How did you get some of these photos? These were from years ago, I don’t even remember half of these events.
Kirito smirks. “Don’t tell me you forgot about my mom. Everywhere we went, she’d be following taking photos on her camera or her phone. I dug through some of our photo books at home and got some copies.” He then points at a more recent picture. “And besides, there’s some from recently too. There’s some empty pages in the back if you wanna fill them up yourself in the future as well.”
There is many moments that Kirito thinks back fondly from those days in Rulid. From them exploring the forest, or having picnics, or walking home from school all together. Judging from Eugeo’s face, he treasures those moments too, and Kirito feels nostalgic.
Eugeo is speechless. “I…” his voice trails off until he softly clears his voice again. “Thank you . Really.” He steps in closer and give Kirito a hug, and when he lets go, he looks back down at the scrapbook. He continues to sort through the photos, his finger tracing through the pages.
At that split second, Kirito thinks it’s time.
And so he cautiously digs his fingers into his front pockets, feeling the prickly stems of the mistletoe scraping against his skin. He starts to get excited. If he could just swiftly get this out and catch Eugeo’s attention, maybe he can finally get out his own confession. There’s no chances for interruptions, or scheming friends as they’re too focused on exchanging their own presents, so—
In his eagerness, he drops the mistletoe.
It lands in front of Eugeo’s feet. And Eugeo definitely notices.
Kirito’s fucked.
“Huh? What’s this?” Eugeo asks. He closes the scrapbook and bends down to pick it up and studies it. “Weird… I wonder where this came from.” He then looks up, almost as if he’s expecting another mistletoe to be above their heads.
Where it came from?! Kirito wants to scream. Gee, I wonder from where!?
Eugeo has to be playing. He has to have known where this came from. Kirito’s the only one within close proximity from him.
Kirito clears his throat.
“Actually um, Eugeo there’s something else I wanted to give you. Or, I mean—” he stumbles and clears his throat again. “There’s something I want to say.”
Eugeo moves in closer. His voice is low. “Yea?”
“Well, we’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Yes, we have.”
“And I usually would never keep any secrets from you.”
“Mhm?”
“But I’ve been keeping this in for a while because I didn’t want you to think any differently of me.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you Kirito, no matter what.”
Kirito takes a deep breath, forcing down his nervousness. “Eugeo, I—”
Someone screams his name. “Kirito!”
It’s Klein. Who’s carrying a wrapped present of his own and rushing towards Kirito.
Out of all the times—
“I finally found ya man!” Klein yells enthusiastically. “Here. My Secret Santa gift for you. I took a while to pick this out so you better like it!”
“I— just hold on for a moment, Eugeo—” Kirito doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence as Eugeo interrupts him.
“Oh no, it’s fine!” Eugeo smiles though it seems a bit strained. “I have to look for Yuuki anyways to give her present. It’s kinda hard to lug around a giant teddy bear, so I should give this to her soon before this is over. I’ll talk to you later!”
And just like that, Eugeo’s gone once more.
“Geez, Eugeo was in a rush. Something happen between you two?” Klein wonders as he shifts the present in his arms. His eyes flit down and then he sees the mistletoe on the floor. “Wait… did you two…” He smirks. “Did something happen between you two under the mistletoe? I knew something good was gonna happen tonight!"
Klein could not have been anymore wrong.
Kirito doesn’t know how to feel.
Three tries. Three failures. The party is almost over and he’s conceded defeat.
He’s standing outside at the porch lawn in front of the house, leaning against the railing. Some snow falls from the sky, covering the outside world into a white abyss. Street lamps flicker from the side, adding small splashes of color and he notes that one of them is off.
It’s strange really. Kirito had been convinced that this whole mistletoe business was the perfect plan, something that would’ve been vague but also would’ve gotten the point across. But instead, its ended up like this.
He sighs out loud, his breath hot against the cold air around him. Then he hears a voice. “Asuna said you’d be out here.”
It’s Eugeo once again. Who’s now leaning against the railing with him. Kirito can feel Eugeo’s warmth and wants to huddle in closer, but stops himself in time. It’s a bit too soon.
“Thanks for having you and your friends invite us over, really,” Eugeo makes out. He’s obviously insinuating about him and Alice. Kirito blinks. Eugeo has been thanking him a lot today.
“It’s only natural. You’re our friends. Why wouldn’t we invite you both?”
Eugeo sighs. “It’s been a while since I last celebrated Christmas like this, and even then for the most part, it would just be me and Alice back in Rulid.”
Kirito can’t imagine Eugeo not being surrounded by a much of friends. “There was Alice’s family right?”
“Yea, but you know her family’s kinda traditional. Wouldn’t want some boy to interrupt or anything,” Eugeo replies.
Kirito can only imagine.
“Sometimes in the morning or afternoon, Alice and I would exchange presents or cards on our own before we went home. And you already know what my parents and brothers are like.” He wrinkles his nose.
Kirito remembers. He never liked them much when he was younger.
Eugeo continues. “So when we both moved here, I was actually really nervous. Rulid’s so small, and over here, it’s so much bigger. I didn’t know how I would’ve been able to handle it."
“But then you were there. A childhood friend I hadn’t seen in years, and you weren’t obligated to talk to me. You probably barely even remembered me. But you still talked to me and invited us over into your friend group when you didn’t have to.”
“I don’t know if Alice has ever told you this, but even if she never really says it, she’s really grateful of you too. And I am as well. So... thank you.”
Eugeo turns his body to completely face Kirito. There’s snow falling behind him, some having blown into his flaxen hair and it damps up. A white scarf is thrown around his neck, and his bangs fall into his eyes.
Kirito feels his heart swell.
“There’s also um… something I need to say,” Eugeo then stutters.
He reaches out to hold Kirito’s hands. His hands are warm. “I, um—” Eugeo stumbles, and his grip on Kirito’s hands tighten, as if he’s trying to comfort himself. “God, this is much harder than I expected it to be, um…” He looks side to side, then up, avoiding eye contact with Kirito. Then he freezes.
Kirito looks up. And there’s a mistletoe.
It finally clicks.
Kirito has seen Eugeo make a lot of faces. He’s seen him when he’s happy, when he’s sad, or embarrassed or angry. But when he looks back down at Eugeo, he’s never seen his face in that shade of red before. Pink, he has seen, but definitely not red.
Kirito can only roll his eyes and smile. Eugeo has an iron grip on Kirito’s hands and he promptly stiffens up.
“I— Sorry, I don’t, the mistl—”
Kirito cuts him off with a kiss. And from shock, Eugeo lets go of his hands.
From there, he takes the chance to wrap his arms around his waist, pressing his body closer to his. It takes Eugeo a while to recover or even compute what’s going on at the moment, before Kirito feels him finally relax and reciprocate. He feels his hands move to his cheeks, and then to his hair, and then to his neck and shoulders, and Kirito shudders.
He can feel Eugeo nipping at his lips and Kirito only pulls him closer. He’d been waiting so long for this moment, he is going to make this last.
Once a few minutes have passed, Kirito lets go, and their lips part. He presses his forehead against Eugeo’s, and when Eugeo keeps his eyes closed, Kirito studies his form. He can feel his warm breath as his arms tighten around him, as if he’s about to pull him in for another kiss, and his cheeks are back to a light pink color.
When Eugeo’s eyes open, his cheeks start to redden again.
Kirito laughs. “You’re so red,” he teases. “And you couldn’t have waited until New Years to confess, couldn’t you?”
“Shut up, you’re the one who kissed me, not the other way around,” Eugeo pouts. He brushes his nose against Kirito’s. “Besides, you’re pretty red as well.”
Kirito pulls him into another kiss.
He’ll have to thank Asuna later.