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Keith's roommate waves as he heads out the door. He's cutting it pretty close if he wants to make the next shuttle out from the Garrison to the main town, but he had insisted on tidying up his half of the room and leaving Keith with a little package of store-bought cookies as a Christmas gift. It's a far cry from his first year in the program – alone in an empty barracks while everyone else shuffled out to have fun with their families – but it's not an unwelcome change. Keith even got off his bunk to clap him on the back on his way out the door, handing him a little whittled figurine in the shape of the cat in the picture near his bed, all wrapped up in Shiro's leftover gift paper. He's glad that Mendez is going to wait to open it though, he likes living with him but that might get a little too friendly if he wanted to like... hug or something.
Still, having the dorm to himself for the break is a gift in itself – probably better than the cookies, though Keith appreciates every processed morsel. The cafeteria doesn't stock much in the way of unhealthy baked goods in their crusade to mold the cohorts into celestial super soldiers or something... and the plan is working out if one glance at Shiro is any indication. The guy's got more lean muscle on him than pretty much anyone Keith has ever met – let alone had the chance to date.
Not that he's really had the chance to date people.
In fact, he's still pretty sure this whole thing is a fluke and Shiro is going to wake up one day and realize that he's been bamboozled by the skinny twink that happens to know how to fly a jet, and then Keith is going to have to jerk off to the memory of his pretty, pretty face instead of the real thing. It's going to be a hardship for sure, but until that happens he's going to take advantage of every minute of Shiro's poor decision making skills.
Speaking of...
Five sharp knocks in a jaunty rhythm tap out on his door – right on time, like Shiro was creeping in the hallway waiting for Mendez to leave.
Keith grins as he shuffles over to the door, throwing it open with a coy flutter of his eyelashes. “Why, junior officer Shirogane, what can I do for you?”
Shiro beams down at him, clutching a little clump of red flowers in his hands like schoolboy with a crush. “I'm looking for my boyfriend, cadet... I owe him some smooches. Have you seen him? He's about your height, completely adorable, legs for days-”
“Get in here you big lug,” Keith laughs and grabs his wrist, tugging Shiro inside to greet him properly. It's always hard to kiss Shiro when they first meet for the day, both of them smiling so hard it's more teeth than anything, and it only makes him adore this man even more. “Are you done with your last meeting then?”
“Mhmm,” Shiro hums against his lips, breaking the kiss to pepper smooches across his nose too. “Convinced Iverson that we should end early so he wouldn't be caught in the traffic with the cadets leaving.”
“Devious.” Keith grins up at him and slings one arm around Shiro's neck to keep him close. “That's why I love you – beauty and brains.”
“Nuh-uh, that's you.” Shiro wraps both hands around Keith's hips and pulls him close, fingers nearly touching in the small of his back in a way that makes Keith almost dizzy. “You're my pretty baby – my hotshot pilot whiz-kid.”
“Get outta here!” Laughing through the barrage of Shiro's kisses, Keith thumps at his chest with one hand and scratches through the short hair at Shiro's nape with the other. “Did you decide what we're doing with all our free time yet?”
The eyebrow wiggle he gets in return is about as seductive as Shiro's terrible pickup lines. “Well baby, I got a few ideas...”
“I meant when I'm not full of the Christmas sausage.” Keith reaches up to flick his boyfriend's floof with a flat look. If Shiro had his way they'd probably never leave the bed... not that it would be a bad thing, but Keith actually wants to celebrate this year now that he has someone to do it with. “Are we gonna decorate a tree?”
“I did get a little one,” Shiro confirms, then blushes and half shrugs, shuffling his feet as he holds Keith close. “And um... if you want I thought we could do what my family did for the holidays, since you didn't really have other traditions you wanted to keep...”
“That sounds perfect.” Keith buries his smile into Shiro's chest, full to bursting with the idea that Shiro wants to include him in family traditions – like he's thinking long term with Keith. “Do I need to do anything?”
Shiro shakes his head and presses a kiss into the sprout on the back of Keith's head. “No, I'll take care of it all. You just keep on being wonderful, darling.”
“You're a sap.”
“I'm your sap.”
The silly grin aimed down at him has Keith doubting that their festivities are going to be starting tonight either way – and that's just fine with him. A gentle nudge has him walking backward until his knees bump into the bed, then he's being lowered down – followed by his boyfriend's wandering hands and tender kisses.
At least they manage to decorate the bedroom floor, if nothing else.
Of course, waking up pillowed against one gorgeously squishy pec doesn't exactly make Keith want to get up and be festive either, not when there's bells that can be jingled right here in this cozy bed. But Shiro – dear, sweet Shiro – is so excited that he's up and pulling on his pants within five minutes of waking up to Keith's greedy kisses.
Of course the one time he gets two weeks alone with his boyfriend he still has to put on pants...
Only grumbling a little, Keith pulls on his own pair of sweatpants and trudges to the cafeteria with Shiro, holding hands like That Gross Couple the whole way. It's blessedly quiet there, only the scattered handfuls of strays left for the holidays – mostly international kids who didn't want to bother with the flight home – but it's enough to keep the kitchen staff working through the break... and good thing too, since there isn't any takeout for miles and eating the prepackaged commissary stuff for two weeks would probably give them scurvy. The limited number of strays also means that the food is infinitely better now that the normally harried cooks only have to make food for two dozen. The pancakes that Shiro heaps onto a plate for them to share are so fluffy Keith almost wants to plant his face in them and go right back to sleep... and that's not even factoring in the freshly fried bacon or the coffee that hasn't even been reheated.
“Oh my god,” Keith groans after the first sip, turning to Shiro with stars in his eyes, “what if we kill everyone else so the food is always this good?”
“Eeeeeh.” His boyfriend's face wrinkles as he shakes his head and aims a fork at Keith. “The food in prison would be much worse though... and you're to pretty to end up there.”
Both of his points are true, but it doesn't stop Keith from dreaming as he tears through his pile of delicious carbs and grease. This could be their everyday... just the two of them and a mountain of delicious breakfast after a night spent well sated and all tangled together. He's never let himself dream like this before, and maybe the season is getting to him, but it feels so right... even with Shiro trying desperately to avoid getting syrup in his floof as he damn near inhales his own stack of pancakes.
God he loves him so much.
“So, what are we doing today?” Keith asks as he scoots a little bit closer, until they're nearly fused together hip to shoulder.
Shiro wraps an arm around his shoulders and swaps his fork to the other hand to continue eating, beaming down at him like there's nowhere he'd rather be. “Gonna decorate the tree, and then I gotta grab something real quick from the kitchens later.”
“Ooh, secrets?” Keith teases him as he crunches on a piece of bacon, loving how he fits right under Shiro's arm. “I guess I can hold down the fort then.”
“You're perfect.” Shiro leans over to press a sticky kiss to Keith's cheek – clearly a cover for the way he tries to steal his coffee cup when he's distracted.
“Hey!” Keith nudges him with an elbow, but lets the theft go otherwise uncontested. “I asked if you wanted your own.”
“It's sweeter after it's touched your lips,” Shiro insists with that angelic grin of his. “And I'm doing you a favor, the sooner we're done the sooner we can get you to the decorating, right?”
“I have done that part before, you.” The statement is punctuated with a fond shake of his head has Keith obligingly begins to clean up his plate. “Me and Dad used to decorate the cactus out by the front porch.”
“Well, this won't be quite as spiny... but I hope you enjoy it anyway.”
It's adorable how much nervous energy Shiro has about this whole thing, like he hasn't made this the best year by leaps and bounds just by existing in Keith's life. Still, he's never had anyone actually try to impress him before... it's kinda nice.
“Alright, big guy. Lead the way.”
Arm in arm, they head back down the empty hallways, stopping to kiss under every sprig of mistletoe left behind by other enterprising cadets in the days leading up to the break. It probably takes three times as long to get to the officers' quarters like that, but Keith can't regret a single moment of it – especially when Shiro pulls back all pink cheeked and beaming every time, looking like Keith's given him the best gift of all just by agreeing to trade affection with him. He'd do anything to keep that look on his boyfriend's face, to erase all the worries and doubts from his mind forever, replaced with the unwavering belief Keith has in him.
For now though, he'll settle for the kisses.
They're both giggling by the time they finally make it to Shiro's dorm, and of course the big sap feels the need to tap out a drum roll before palming the reader open.
“Ta-da!”
The door whooshes open to reveal a tree that would be sitting about waist high if Shiro hadn't obviously taken pains to steal a card table and cover it in wrapping paper, making a very appropriately tree-height offering for them to decorate. It's already covered in strings of twinkling lights, which is perfect since that's the worst part about decorating a tree anyway and Keith is more than happy to skip the mandatory three hours of struggling with burned out light bulbs until the whole string works.
“It's beautiful, Shiro.” He turns to throw his arms around Shiro's shoulders, letting the bigger man take his weight and half-carry him over to the tree. “Do you already have garland and ornaments?”
“Of course,” Shiro scoffs, vaguely affronted at the suggestion that he might not be ready for festivities at a moment's notice. “I got us two different colors of garland and a rainbow of those little balls... but I know you said red and purple were your favorites so I got extras of those, and some more of the metallic ones just in case we decide the rainbow clashes a little too much with it, so there's options...”
He trails off as Keith bites his lip, unable to stifle his smile at Shiro's childlike glee.
“No, please! Keep going,” Keith urges him and reaches out to snatch Shiro's hand, squeezing for emphasis, “you're just so cute, I can't help it.”
“You're cute,” Shiro grumbles, but gamely trots over to pull out a big tub of ornaments. “Okay, so I'll help you put on the garland but then I've gotta go get more supplies.”
“Sounds good,” Keith chirps, already digging into the box to pull out long strings of sparkling silver and gold garland, “you stand on that side and we can pass it around.”
Turns out the process goes a lot faster than Keith remembers – probably because one of the decorators isn't six years old trying to pass it around the tree by running in circles at the bottom. For once, it doesn't hurt to think of celebrating with his dad... but he can't help but wonder if the three of them would be doing this together somewhere in another universe. He hopes so. Either way, the initial layer of decoration looks pretty damn good, if he does say so himself, and he can't wait to get all the ornaments on so he can bask in the glow of their combined cheer all week from the giant nest of blankets he's totally going to make out of Shiro's bed later.
“Okay... now I've gotta run, but I'll be right back!”
“Kay bye,” Keith flaps a hand in Shiro's direction as he slips out the door, utterly engrossed by the task of making the world's coolest tree... or at least the Garrison's coolest tree. He starts with the reds and purples, then adds in a few of the metallic and black ornaments. It's a little intimidating for a tree though, if he's being honest. Cold, pristine, beautiful... not exactly jolly. So he adds in the other colors in alternating rows – some green here, a little yellow there, maybe even a blue orb or two – of course the pink and orange clash horribly, but he tosses one of each in there for good measure before standing back to admire his handiwork.
“Hey baby, I'm ba- oh!” Shiro pops in through the door, stumbling to a stop as he takes in the tree. “Wow, that was so fast!”
“I like to be efficient.” Keith grins and heads over to take one of the packages from his boyfriend's arms. “What are these? It almost smells like...”
“Fried chicken?” Shiro asks with a knowing glint in his eyes. “That's because it is... welcome to my family tradition!”
“Huh.” A quick peek into the box reveals a whole package of wings and thighs, carefully wrapped up in brown paper. “I mean, why not?”
“Right?” The grin stretching across Shiro's face is infectious and sets something warm and bright squirming in Keith's chest. “My mom always said it was my granddad's favorite part of the whole holiday and they'd have to get a whole bucket of KFC just for him each year.”
“Sounds like my kind of guy.”
“I'm sure he's gonna love you... mom too.” Shiro's smile goes a touch sheepish as he sets the other box down on the table and starts fiddling with the knot on it. “I know it hasn't been very long... but if I'm not on a mission I was thinking maybe you can come home with me next year?”
Keith blinks at him, momentarily stunned by the suggestion. “Really?”
“Yeah, if you want.” Those gray eyes are so pretty as Shiro looks up through his lashes, all shy and sweet and the best damn thing Keith has ever seen. “I want them to meet the man I love.”
“Shiro...” Keith can feel his eyes going misty as he abandons the box of chicken and dives into his boyfriend's arms. “I would love that.”
“Oh good,” Shiro sighs, like there could have been another answer that Keith might even conceive of giving him, “cause this cake would be super awkward if you said no.”
“Cake?” Keith perks up again, pulling back to crane his neck toward the box. “Like fruitcake?”
“Bleugh, no.” Shiro scowls at the suggestion, side-eyeing Keith like he personally invented it. “It's tradition... fried chicken and cake, and um... romantic dates and stuff.”
“That sounds way better than my last few Christmases.”
“Well, here's hoping this is your best ever... until next year.” He unties the box with a flourish, letting Keith get a peek of two icing birds sitting on a branch – all set in buttercream frosting. “The kitchen staff said it's um... lovebirds... since we're all cute and stuff.”
“They're adorable.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah... now tell me about this romantic date thing.” Keith winks at Shiro, like this isn't already in the top three most romantic moments of his life – with the number one and two spots still being Shiro. “It's not actually Christmas day yet...”
“Well, I figured we had all break to get a jump on it.” Shiro shrugs, like a man ready to scrounge up fried chicken and cake for the next fourteen days. “Today we can have a nice night in... tomorrow we can watch the stars on the roof... maybe a picnic out on the cliffside...”
“Sounds great, Shiro.” Keith stretches onto his toes to press a kiss to his nose before nuzzling their cheeks together. “Any date, any tradition... you know I'll love anything as long as it's with you.”