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Christmas.
Zed had never cared for the holiday, nor celebrated it outside of small gift givings between friends. Nothing deep, nothing important. The holiday was also missing from his childhood, but that didn't matter anymore. He was going to celebrate Christmas this year, because this year was different. He was going to be with Shen.
Shen had told him he'd be alone this Christmas, away from the family he frankly didn't want to spend it with anyway. And so he invited Zed.
Even though Zed never would admit it, it made him incredibly happy. Perhaps this was his chance. Shen was inviting him to spend the night of Christmas eve and even Christmas itself with him, this had to mean something, right?
Zed wasn't sure. He talked about it with Syndra and she said it was "clearly obvious you two were crushing on each other," and that "you guys act all gross and shit, you already act like a damn couple."
Zed told her she was wrong, but maybe she was onto something. There was a chance. A chance for something, right? What could go wrong?
Everything could go wrong.
The thought was nerve-racking, but he tried to shake it. He didn't have time to think about it anymore. He was almost there, walking up to Shen's apartment, about to reach his floor. He couldn't seem nervous, that'd be weird. It's not like he never visited Shen. He could take his time, he didn't have to hit him with the I love you immediately. Ew, that's cringy. Fuck. He'd think about details later, it was showtime.
Showing up with his little corny gift, Shen was waiting outside his apartment for him, waving at him a little. That's cute. Shen's cute. Fuck. Ok. Stop being an idiot.
"Hello, hello Zed! It's nice to see you." Shen looked down at the box Zed was carrying while letting him into the apartment. "Didn't think we were getting big gifts for each other."
"Heyy, nice to be here. And, uh, it's not a really big gift or anything, it's kinda really fucking stupid."
"I bet it'll be great, especially coming from you. Don't worry about it too much, okay? I'm excited for tomorrow."
Man, that's so sweet.
"Thanks, means a lot, you're awfully nice. Shock, a compliment, I know, I'm blaming it on my tiredness and nothing else at aaall."
"To be fair it is a bit late, but thank you I will cherish your sleep deprived compliment for all my days, good sir Zed."
That got a laugh out of Zed, but it was somewhat true. Shen had insisted he stayed the night so he wouldn't have to deal with the early commute. Not like Zed minded at all as it meant more time with Shen.
The apartment was lightly decorated, nothing much, but Shen had a small tree and the occasional decor here and there. The apartment was nice, it always felt nice being there, Zed wished he could be there more. Maybe that could change. Mmm.. Thoughts for later. They had planned on watching a really cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie before they slept.
After getting settled a bit and putting his gift by the tree, Zed spoke up. "Soo.. Have you picked out the movie?"
"No, not really, I was planning to choose whatever awful one showed up first, unless you have something better. I also made some cookies for tonight and tomorrow so help yourself."
"Oooh cookies, fuck yeah, don't mind if i do."
-
This movie was absolutely boring Shen to death, and by the looks of it Zed wasn't enjoying it either. Shen was surprised Zed didn't openly complain about it as he usually would, but he just seemed so lost in thought.
Shen would offer to do something else but frankly he was just too comfortable on the couch. He and Zed both had blankets and everything was nice, besides the movie. He was about to say something when Zed stood up, still wrapped in his blanket.
"This movie fucking sucks and I think we both know it... and I have a horrible idea," Zed paused for a moment, "...if you'd be down."
"Oh? Please share. I don't think I could stand watching more."
"So... What if we made a fort.. Super fucking childish, I know, but it could be stupid and fun and it's just something to do.. I did it a lot as a kid and while I don't have any Christmas traditions, it's in a similar vein, I think."
That was really endearing and cute to Shen. He never really got to do anything of the sorts as a kid, his father was too strict, but it sounded like fun. It also meant really spending time with Zed, not just sitting next to him, and he liked Zed. As a friend.
Was there more too it? Shen tried to not think about it too much, yes sometimes he'd catch himself missing him when he left and thinking about him a lot, but that could just be what friends do, right? No.. wait-
"Sheeeeeen, I know I have shitty ideas, but you can just say they suck to my face instead of trying to come up with a nice reason why we don't have to," Zed said with a slight frown on his face. "I genuinely don't mind."
"No, no that's not what I meant at all, I'm sorry. I'd love to, it seems really fun. I just-" Shen paused for a moment, "I don't know how. I've never done it before."
"No way, for real? Holy shit."
"I haven't... Never was able to nor has anyone wanted too. Care to enlighten me?" The way he asked sounded quite dumb, but it got a laugh out of Zed and that was all that mattered.
"Fuck yeah, I will. I'm stealing some chairs. Could you get a couple more pillows and blankets?"
"Gotchya."
It was cute seeing Zed get so excited about this, although he was also pretty excited. He went to go grab some blankets while he heard Zed dragging things around.
When Shen came back he saw the start to a fort, two chairs at the lining of the couch with a blanket as a roof, more chairs were set align. Sitting in it was Zed, illuminated by the light of the tv that was still playing although at a much lower volume.
"Welcome back.." Zed said in a monotone voice while staring at him. He was failing to hide back a smile, trying to look intimidating.
"Oh no.. I can't even approach you. I must run away in terror and accidentally drop these blankets.." And he did just that, soon coming back carrying pillows.
Time passed and they had finally finished the fort. The couch was completely consumed by the fort, and with the help of blankets and chairs it reached the size where both of them could hide comfortably in it, for who knew what dangers lurked outside.
"Wait, wait, one last thing before it's finished." Zed got out and proceeded to grab a little reindeer ornament from the tiny tree. He placed it on what was left of the couch, like a second story inside the fort. "Tadaa! Our great leader."
Shen swore Zed could not get any cuter, he just seemed so genuinely happy and carefree, unlike his usual pessimistic cynical attitude. It made Shen happy in the most pure and warm way.
"Oh thank god.. Whatever would we have done without him."
"For real, we'd be so fucking dead." Zed got on his back so he could peak his head out. A little bit of his shirt lifted up.. Stop. Look away.
Zed shuffled his head back in. "Well damn the movie finally ended. Ima guess the girl and the dude got together and did some stupid corny shit about Santa or Jesus, I don't fucking know."
"Finally." Shen was interrupted by a yawn, "I was gonna talk about the great filmmaking but I think my body wants me to rest."
Zed yawned too. "What a shame, I think you infected me too... Mmm... Our great leader has my bed... I will sleep under his protection." Zed grabbed an excess blanket and pulled it over himself. Meanwhile Shen still had his back to the couch. Oh, if he could stay.
"I'll make sure to turn the lights off and everything, if you're ready to sleep now by all means go ahead."
"Thanks... Goodnight Shen.." It sounded like he had more to say but he's probably just tired, Shen for sure is.
"Goodnight Zed, sleep well." He got up and turned everything off before heading to his room.
Tomorrow.
-
Owww...Fuck.
Well that was a rude awakening. Zed woke up in an uncomfortable position, for a moment blinded by the light seeping through the blanket above him.
What time was it? Shen didn't appear to be up, or at least he couldn't hear him. He fumbled for his phone.. 8am. That's too early for him.
He had some missed messages from Syndra. What could she want?
[zeddy weddy 🥺🥺 are u doing okay? u better not chicken out u deserve that man]
[zed i have a new idea you could be really cool and be like "oh my god!! ur second gift is.. me 😜 im all urs", doesnt that sound great it'd totally work trust me.]
Syndra was his best friend but boy was she something at times. She was helping him with this entire ordeal and Zed appreciated it, but she was also very.. Syndra.
[If I hadn't just woke up I'd be replying with profanity.. thanks, merry christmas]
Not the best reply but good enough since he was too tired to care... too tired to rise..
Soon he drifted off to sleep again.
-
"Zed, are you awake?"
"Mmm.. fuck, what time is it."
"It's 10:30 but that's okay, No need to wake up early, I've only been up for an hour."
"Shiiit, we were supposed to do the gifts, fuck." Zed immediately got up and out of the fort. With the blankets out of the way, he noticed the room smelled like bacon.
"Zed, really, it's alright. We still have plenty of time, plus I made some breakfast. It's not anything fancy but it gets the job done." Shen smiled at him. That damn smile, so genuine he hated it because it just made him want Shen more.
"Aw, thank you, I wish I could've helped a bit. Lemme go piss and stuff but then we can eat, then gifts."
"Alright."
-
After breakfast Shen was excited for present opening, it was supposed to be small gifts, yes, but this was Zed's first real Christmas if he recalled? Shen really wanted to make it good for him. At least through the spirit of it.
"Do you want to open your gift first, Zed?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. Unless you'd rather go first, I'm down for whatever."
"Cool. Well, here you go." Shen went up and brought both gifts over to the table and handed his to Zed.
"I really hope you like it." Shen wasn't sure if it'd fit Zed's taste. It was a red cashmere scarf and while Zed hadn't owned any scarfs that Shen knew of, it was something he thought would look good on Zed.
Zed carefully unwrapped the gift, trying his best to keep the paper intact. "Oh hey, this is actually really nice? I don't know exactly what I expected but I fuck with it."
Whew.
"I'm really glad you like it, I know it's kinda boring, it's just a scarf but I think it'd fit you well."
"No, no, I don't think it's boring. That means a lot and I value your opinion."
"Oh, yeah, there's also a little something else in the box."
"Yooo, holy shit, this is that fucking chocolate brand I'm obsessed with. Thanks a lot, man."
Shen was quite happy to hear that Zed liked it.
"Of course, I saw them at the store the other day and just knew I had to get them for you."
"Oh wow, that's.. really similar to what I did for your gift, except mine is more dumb." Zed laughed.
"We'll see about that, let me see here." Shen went to open the carefully tied bow on the box, he took it off and there it was. A giant fat-ass shiba plush. It was really cute, and Zed got it because it made him think of him? That's really, really sweet.
"So I take by the look of your face that you like it?"
Right, Shen hadn't said anything yet, oops.
"Oh yeah! I really do, it's cute." He flipped it around. "Oh my god, it has a fucking asshole."
Zed laughed, "Yeah, I love it! It's so dumb!" He sounded so enthusiastic.
Shen loves seeing him happy..
"Thank you Zed, I really like it!"
"Heh. I'm glad you do."
-
"Do you want to play Mario Party?"
It had been a while since they opened the gifts. They had done their own thing for a while, much to Zed's dismay, but he didn't wanna seem clingy. This wasn't his place anyway.
"Oh fuck yeah I do. I call dibs on Yoshi though, sorry."
"Heh, well of course. I always play as Shy Guy."
"Ahhh, that makes a whole lot of sense."
Mario party had been turned on and the gaming ensued. The fort was still up so they played inside it, the entrance lift up so they could see the TV. They went against some randoms online to make it harder than just CPUS. They were better than them anyways. After some minigames they got into a 2v2 minigame with each other as their teammates.
"Shen, we are going to fucking destroy Mario and Donkey Kong, okay?" They must. This was their time to shine and Zed would not let himself fail his not-so-obvious crush.
"Of course not, we will prove fruitful. I believe in us."
After a minigame that felt way longer than it was, they had absolutely destroyed the enemy team. Zed hoped switch users D3macia_Sukz and daruwinedking enjoyed their sweet sweet defeat.
"Hell yeah, Zed, that was really, really good, we absolutely destroyed them! " Shen held up his hand towards Zed for a high five. How cute. Really cute. Zed tried to say something, and then it just slipped out.
"Shen.. I think I have feelings for you." What the fuck. Why did he do that???!?!! The plan???
Zed's face immediately went red. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't apologize, that'd make him look weak and he didn't want to give that impression. He wanted to confess, but.. not like this. It was going to be methodical, a long talk. Not something that happens during fucking Mario Party. He wasn't even certain if Shen was into dudes at all. Fuuuuuuck, he had a feeling but he didn't know know. Holy shit, holy shit, he hadn't even noticed Shen's face. Shen wasn't smiling anymore, he just looked shocked. Please don't say he ruined things. Please.
"Zed-"
"I'm fucking stupid, I know, you don't have to-"
Zed was interrupted with a hug. Shen's hand previously waiting for a high five was now holding his back as Shen's body was pressed against his. It was warm. It was comforting. Does this mean...? Probably. Hopefully. Nonetheless Zed felt relieved. They stayed like that for a while, not a word was said just embracing each other. It was only then interrupted by Zed, moving back he could see Shen's face. His face had a slight hint of pink and he looked flushed. Zed slowly moved his head forward with a mix of desire and precaution. He leaned in for a kiss, making sure Shen had enough time to react if he didn't want it. It was a short innocent kiss. Zed wanted more, but he would hold that desire for when the time was right.
Zed finally spoke up after what seemed like an eternity of blushing and stares. "Well shit... Merry Christmas, Shen." How cheesy, a little too close to Syndra's rejected idea, but it felt right.
"I'm sorry for my lack of response, Zed, I'm fairly bad with words when it comes to this kind of stuff."
"It's alright.. I mean I wasn't much better, over fucking mario party..." This got a chuckle from Shen.
"Best damn game of mario party I've had if the outcome of it is what I think it'll be."
"Ohhh so we're gonna be like that huh. What do you think the outcome will be?" Zed asked in a very sarcastic tone, he wasn't nervous anymore, he wasn't going to overstep boundaries but he can finally do a bit of what hes wanted.
"Oh no I just, you know. We both have feelings for each other and uhm.."
"Oh I know, I knooow, I kid, I kid." Zed lightly pushed Shen down onto his back before leaning over him. Shen was flushed over the sudden movement and it made Zed smirk.
"I like your face. It's not only cute but quite hot." As much as Zed wanted to do more as he was a sucker for physical affection, he laid off and went to laying next to Shen.
"Someone.. quite suddenly got a bit of confidence. Which is also very cute. Not complaining though, I like it." Shen looked at him.
"Oh fuck."
"Hm?"
"Our game of mario party, we were playing with randoms online. We're fucked."
"Maybe, but I don't really care right now, don't you agree?" Shen grabbed Zed from behind and pulled him close.
"..... Fair enough." And just like that Zed was completely red again, the shade matched his scarf well.