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The room felt warm. He smiled.
Atsushi opened his eyes to the sunrays managing to sneak through the curtains, making the room look a golden color pretty to the view. He felt a hand running through his hair and looked upwards. He had his arms tangled around his boyfriend's waist, the boy already awake looking at him like he was the most precious thing in the world.
It felt nice.
"Good morning, Ryuu." Atsushi said with a sleepy voice.
"Morning." The other boy said, smiling.
"What hour is it?" Atsushi shuffled and moved his arm around Ryuu's waist to rest on his back. He saw Ryuu frown for a quarter of a second as he was forced to move his hand away from Atsushi's hair. Though, he moved and rested on his right side so that he could look at Atsushi.
"11 in the morning."
"What?" Atsushi frowned. "I was supposed to be up at 9." He covered his face with his hands. Ryuu just chuckled.
"Why?"
Atsushi uncovered his face and smiled brightly.
"Because it's Christmas eve!"
Atsushi loved Christmas. On his days at the ophanage, Christmas was the only thing that managed to make him genuinely happy. Even if he never received any presents when he was a child, he clearly remembered how the streets were decorated with green and red ornaments, how tea would taste extra sweet on those days. The orphanage was usually decorated with a little tree with a star on top of it, and the magic of simple things as those managed to make him feel a little bit of hope, always.
When he grew up, that magic and that feeling of hope never managed to fade away.
He felt lucky. He had met a lot of people ever since. He was now finishing college, had met a group of people who had given him a home, he had people he could call friends.
He had...
He had a person he loved. Someone he would be able to share his favorite holiday with.
He couldn't help but smile at the thought of it being a beautiful gift.
Ryuu had been watching Atsushi the whole time, and when he saw him smile, he felt a warmth in his chest that filled his heart with determination.
This was going to be a wonderful Christmas. Ryuu would make sure of it.
He moved forward and gave Atsushi a kiss on the cheek. "Then let's go, we have some cookies to bake, don't we?"
Christmas activities were reserved for Christmas eve.
Atsushi's favorite one was baking cookies.
He was pretty good at it.
Ryuu? Not so much.
"Okay!" Atsushi said, clapping his hands and looking at the cooking supplies on top of the kitchen counter. "First, what do we have to do?"
Ryuu was frowning at his phone as he scrolled through the recipe he had found online for Christmas cookies.
"I can't find the ingredients, give me a second."
Atsushi giggled as he saw how concentrated Ryuu was. "Give me the phone, I'll check it."
"No no, I can do this!" Ryuu said raising a finger, scrolling again through his phone, while Atsushi just laughed.
They would be spending this year's holidays alone at their college residence. All of their friends had plans for the holidays: Kyouka would be spending Christmas with her friends at Kenji's house, Dazai was at Chuuya's house, Yosano and Kouyou were travelling and Ranpo had gone out with Poe to ice skate.
Everyone was spending the holidays with their special people, and Atsushi was no exception.
He smiled again.
"Ryuu, if you don't hurry we are going to have to make new year cookies." Atsushi said, looking at his boyfriend with a bright smile.
"Okay okay, I got it! Here." Ryuu looked like he was proud of himself. Atsushi knew Ryuu wasn't the best at baking and cooking, so he appreciated his effort at helping him with it.
"First, three cups of flour."
Atsushi grinned. "Could you please pass me the flour Ryuu?"
Ryuu looked at his boyfriend who was smilling with puppy eyes and nodded.
He searched through the kitchen and finally found the white bag that contained flour. He grabbed it and walked towards Atsushi who was now wearing an apron and put the bag next to the bowl.
"Here."
Atsushi frowned playfully. "Do you expect me to put all that flour onto the bowl?"
Ryuu let out a sigh. He looked through one of the drawers and found a measuring cup.
"Okay, now pass me three cups of flour please." Atsushi kept smiling like a kid. Ryuu had to hold back a grin at how excited he looked.
"I thought you were the one baking the cookies!"
"Ryuu, you can't go your whole life without knowing how to cook! How are you going to feed yourself?" Atsushi said while grabbing the first cup of flour and put it into the bowl, forming a little white mountain inside.
"Well, I have you, so I think I will be okay." Ryuu replied almost in a whisper, looking down to the next cup and letting a small smile be shown on his lips.
"Huh." Atsushi looked at his boyfriend who was suddenly really shy to look at him. He smiled at how pretty he looked.
His dark hair contrasted with the white ends framing his face, and there was something about him wearing an apron that made Atsushi's heart burst.
He introduced his hand into the flour bag to grab some of the white powder and grabbed Ryuu's chin to lift his head up and look at his eyes. He caressed Ryuu's face leaving a white mark behind with his fingers.
"Hey!" The other man looked up with a surprised face. He had his left cheek and chin covered with flour.
"Why are you suddenly shy? I can cook for you as much as you'd like."
Ryuu frowned. He didn't reply.
Instead, he looked to the bag of flour and grabbed a bit of the powder. Then, with a hand covered in white, he messed atsushi's hair and laughed at the other man's surprised reaction.
"Ryuu! Now I'll have to shower again!"
"You started it!" Ryuu raised his hands in defeat. Both boys kept laughing as Ryuu finished with the cups of flour and passed them to Atsushi.
He did the same with the salt and baking powder. Though, he had to contain himself from laughing and throwing every ingredient at Atsushi, just in revenge for having made him the cook asistant.
Though, he didn't mind it helping Atsushi.
But, it was more fun to see Atsushi try to convince him to bake.
They proceeded with the recipe as Ryuu grabbed the ingredients and Atsushi mixed them in a bowl.
Now, trying to break the egg was the next step.
"Two eggs." Ryuu said reading outlout.
"Okay." Atsushi grabbed the bowl where he had the margarine and sugar, ready to break the eggs on the side.
Though, he remembered he had Ryuu as his assistant.
"Do you wanna try and break one?"
Ryuu frowned with a smile and sighed.
"The things I do for you, Atsushi. Can't believe you're making me do this."
Atsushi, on the other hand, just laughed.
"You just have to break an egg!"
"But what if I get the eggshell on the mix?!"
"You just take it out!" Atsushi crossed his arms. "Go ahead Ryuu."
Ryuu's face was incredibly concentrated. He grabbed the egg and practiced a few times before hitting the edge of the bowl. It was a life or death situation. He couldn't ruin the cookies for Atsushi. He had to break the egg perfectly-
"Do you want me to hold your hand?" Atsushi said, teasingly.
"No, no." Ryuu said completely immersed in his task. Atsushi took this opportunity to give a kiss on his boyfriend's forehead.
Ryuu dropped the egg inside the mix without having broken it.
"Hey!"
Atsushi laughed. "You were taking too long."
"I almost got it."
"So you don't want me to do that again?"
Ryuu rolled his eyes. "Of course I want you to do that again." He sighed as if Atsushi was making him lose all his patience, when in reality, he was hoping Atsushi would kiss him again.
Atsushi smiled and gave him another kiss on the forehead.
Ryuu grabbed the egg and finally broke it. Atsushi had to take out the leftover eggshells but gave Ryuu another kiss as a congratulation for working very hard. He grabbed the next egg and broke it, finally beginning to beat the eggs into the mix.
After a while of mixing and stirring, they finally got the mix into the oven.
"Perfect!" Atsushi said with a smile that indicated approval. Probably some of his best cookies yet.
"Can I decorate them?" Ryuu said from where he was sitting.
"Of course."
Ryuu smiled as an answer and that, for some reason, made Atsushi melt.
Ryuu looked so...
Happy.
Atsushi stared at him for a while. He had taken off the apron and had put on one of Atsushi's hoodies, his black hair messy and his grey eyes moving from left to right as he stared outside the window.
Atsushi couldn't have asked for anything more beautiful these holidays.
He truly was...
In love, this Christmas eve.
"You're staring." Ryuu said.
"I am."
"Oh?"
Atsushi walked towards him and hugged him from behind.
"I'm glad I can spend this Christmas with you, Ryuu."
Ryuu blushed slightly at Atsushi's sudden comment. He chuckled and turned to look at him, kissing him for a second.
"I'm glad I get to live this day with you."
The cookies were some of the best Ryuu had ever had. It wasn't the first time they had baked together, but there was something in the atmosphere that exact day that made everything feel different.
Everything felt...
Joyful.
Ryuu grabbed a cookie and took a bite. Atsushi glared at him and took it out of his hand.
"No eating cookies before we decorate them!"
"But I'm hungry."
"So? You'll have to wait." Atsushi smiled at Ryuu's face and continued decorating his own cookie. It had the shape of a tiger and he was covering it with white frostinf.
Ryuu grabed the spoon and took a little bit of the frosting into his mouth. Though, the spoon stopped midway when he saw Atsushi looking at him.
"Ryuunosuke." Atsushi scolded him with a soft voice.
"Fine, fine." Ryuu said, leaving the spoon where it was.
Though, not before quickly tasting the frosting with his finger.
"I saw that." Atsushi said.
"What?" Ryuu looked away.
Atsushi smiled and just shook his head.
Ryuu smiled and continued decorating his own cookie. It was almost dinner time, and they had to arrange the table for Christmas dinner.
But before, Atsushi had to do something else.
After decorating the cookies, Ryuu sat down at the piano in the room. He looked at the white tiles and started playing a Christmas song. As he did this, Atsushi was finishing wrapping a present. It was a box of a medium size that was already wrapped with a brown paper, and atsushi was struggling to fold the more decorated paper in place. He heard Ryuu playing the piano and smiled.
He wished he could hear that music for the rest of his life.
He stood up after putting a bow on top of the gift and hid it behind the tree with the rest of the boxes. He walked towards ryuu and sat down next to him.
"Will you ever teach me how to play the piano?" Atsushi asked in a low voice, his hand wandering over the white and black tiles.
Ryuu looked at Atsushi and something inside him sparked. The sudden question made Ryuu's heart pound against his chest.
He answered as he looked at his boyfriend's hands.
"Whenever you want." Ryuu grabbed Atsushi's right hand and started playing a simple melody while he grabbed his fingers. His thumb caressed Atsushi's hand as he did this.
"I can teach you to cook, if you want." Atsushi looked at Ryuu's eyes, amber and grey color finding each other's warmth.
Ryuu grinned.
"Its a promise, then." He said, almost whispering as if they were sharing a secret. He grabbed Atsushi's hand and kissed his ring finger. "Don't ever forget it."
The next morning, Atsushi woke up excited at 8 in the morning. He woke Ryuu up screaming in excitement.
"Ryuu, Merry Christmas!" He said, giving kisses all over his face to wake his boyfriend up.
Ryuu made a noise and opened his eyes. He smiled lazily.
"Merry Christmas, Atsushi"
"Wake up! Come see the tree."
He grabbed his hand and pulled him up so he was sitting on the bed.
Ryuu seemed to remember something as his eyes went wide, then he hopped off the bed grabbing Atsushi with him.
"Yes! Yes, let's open the presents!"
The two of them were running towards the living room where the tree was, both sitting down on the floor at the same time. But before any of them could look under the tree, Ryuu told Atsushi:
"Close your eyes."
Atsushi was nervous. He wanted Ryuu to open his present first. "But first, open this-"
"No no, close your eyes." Ryuu insisted.
"But-"
"Please..." Ryuu looked at Atsushi with the same puppy eyes Atsushi had used on him.
Atsushi sighed and closed his eyes as instructed. He wins this time, he thought.
Ryuu grabbed something from behind the tree and put it next to Atsushi on the floor. His hands were shaking.
"Okay!" He said, excited.
"Now, you close your eyes." Atsushi said, opening his eyes with his heart besting fast.
Ryuu closed them and he felt as Atsushi also took something from behind the tree.
A box was put next to Ryuu, too.
Huh.
"Open your eyes."
Ryuu opened his eyes and saw how the only presents under the tree were the two boxes next to each other. He started to feel his stomach hurt because of the anxiety and nervousness, and he couldn't help but smile to ease his nerves.
"Open your present first." Ryuu said.
"No, open yours." Atsushi said.
"It's okay, you can go first."
"No, I insist Ryuu."
Both boys frowned and laughed.
"Okay, what if we open them at the same time?"
"Sounds good to me." Atsushi said, feeling like he was going to faint out of excitement.
Both boys grabbed their respective boxes and put them on their lap.
"Okay." Atsushi breathed.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!" Both of them started tearing the paper. They both reached a blue box.
It was the exact same blue box for the both of them.
They opened the box and what was inside made Atsushi scream and Ryuu laugh.
It was an engagement ring.
Both of them had gotten each other an engagement ring!
"Ryuu..." Atsushi had tears in his eyes.
"Atsushi!" Ryuu's face was full of joy.
This was like magic.
"Will you marry me?" Both of them said.
And after a pause to look at each other, they said, at the same time:
"Yes!"
Joy, happiness, hope, magic.
Love.
That's what Christmas is about, right?