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Niko sighed and exhaled the smoke from his lungs.
Holidays were always an interesting time of year. They all had a lot of family to see and it could be a tad overwhelming; seeing so many relatives in a short period, let alone all the shopping they had to do, arranging travel, arguments over who's family home they will wake up in on Christmas morning…
He sighed again, he liked seeing all his boyfriends’ families, at least the ones they talked to, but he couldn't deny it was exhausting too.
He shivered as a gust of cold air ripped through his coat, when he first stepped out the wind had been blocked by the rest of the house but now it was burning his cheeks and the nicotine suddenly didn't seem worth it. He stubbed out the cigarette and went back into the warmth of their kitchen.
All of his boyfriends were still trying to figure out everything when he joined them at the table, Tommi was their main logistics coordinator so he was taking charge of the planning.
“You ok?” Joel asked as he sat down.
“Yeah,” Niko assured him, “what's the plan?”
Tommi sighed, “ok, we don't want to spend too long in Nummela-” he glanced up at Aleksi to confirm.
Their DJ nodded, while his mother at least somewhat accepted them now, it was still rather awkward to be there for an extended period of time, even more so with his father's side. An afternoon visit would suffice.
Tommi wrote in his notebook, “ok, so we'll go to Nummela on Friday, spend the afternoon and evening and come home, next morning we'll head to Oulu. We'll spend some time with Niko’s family that night, maybe through into the morning…?”
Niko let out a little groan, his family was… rather mixed in their feelings. His siblings mostly accepted their relationship but his parents were still rather baffled by the fact he was dating five people.
He missed getting to have a big family Christmas with them, but the one time they had tried the amount of intrusive questions and insensitive comments they had gotten had been too much to handle.
He missed it, but he wanted his boyfriends, and himself, to be comfortable.
“That night will be fine.” Niko told him.
“We'll see the Hokka’s on Christmas Eve,” Tommi continued with a nod, “and the Matela’s and Porko’s on Christmas Day. Then we can come home on Tuesday or Wednesday, if we want to meet up with any friends when we're there.”
Everyone nodded and agreed to plan; it was lucky that Olli and Joonas' families were so close, both side incredibly supportive as well so they always had a safe option for holidays. Joel's family as well.
Tommi's… well, that was much the same as it had been in the beginning. Their disbelief and disapproval hadn't gotten any better over time and when Tommi had finally cut them off, that had been basically the end of it. They would occasionally try to reach out and convince him how far he had strayed but Tommi would just ignore them.
Still, Niko couldn't imagine having to completely cut his parents off, even if their relationship had been rough like Tommi's had always been with his own. It was something they had all talked about before, and while Tommi was much happier not having to deal with them, that didn't make it any less painful that his own parents had rejected him so much.
Niko watched as Tommi sighed and started figuring out their travel plans, a sadness in his eyes as everyone talked about seeing their families, however brief as he threw himself into the discussion.
…
“I think we should stay here for Christmas.” Niko said a few nights later.
Four of his boyfriends blinked at him in surprise, Tommi currently out picking up their dinner.
“Why?” Aleksi asked, “not that I would mind, honestly.”
“Every year we go back to Oulu, every year we see everyone's family except Tommi's.” Niko started.
“Because they're assholes.” Joel muttered.
“I know,” Niko told him, “but Tommi always has to plan our trip to our hometown and his family is never included because they're awful. Just because he's justified in cutting them off doesn't mean it doesn't hurt… imagine that you didn't talk to your parents at all, that you hadn't seen them in years and hadn't told them anything about our lives. I don't think they even know our address.”
“They don't,” Olli confirmed, “he hasn't spoken to them since we moved in together.”
“There are… moments,” Joonas slowly said, “where he spaces out a bit and looks sad when we're with our families. He always says he's fine but maybe a year off from going to see them would be a good idea.”
They reached out to their respective families to tell them that they would be staying home that year and would visit later; over the next few days they found more decorations to make the house more festive, slowly acquired snacks and made plans for their time off, just the six of them.
Once Thursday morning dawned they all crept out of bed to decorate the house more and prepare breakfast for him, with the exception of Joel. They had all agreed long ago they wouldn't wake Joel up unless they had to since sleep came so difficult to him.
Aleksi and Joonas were at least decent cooks, Niko thought with a chuckle, he and Olli were completely banned from the kitchen and Joel was only allowed to make coffee and basic food; without them they would have had to have ordered out.
“Hand me that tinsil,” Olli interrupted his thoughts, winding the shiny strands around their window sills.
“I hope he likes this.” Niko muttered.
“I think he will,” Olli replied, “it's been hard for him, even if he will never admit it, and it's awkward around Aleksi's family too. We'll see how we all like this year and figure out what to do going forward.” he nodded a little as he finished the decorations, “let's go wake them up.”
Niko nodded and checked in to make sure breakfast was ready before going to the bedroom to see Olli trying to gently wake Tommi and Joel up, the two tightly wrapped around each other.
A thought crossed his mind and he leaped onto the bed, laughing as they both jolted awake.
“It's too early to wrestle,” Tommi groaned, Joel incoherently agreeing.
“Breakfast is ready for everyone.” Olli told them, diving across them both, “and it's never too early!”
Joel let out an “oof” when he landed and tried to push him back off, but to no avail.
“Are you going to get up?” Niko asked with a laugh, giving them both a kiss on their foreheads.
“Yeah,” Tommi sighed and pulled Joel up, “I suppose we should pack before we leave today, since we're going to leave right away tomorrow morning.”
“Let's just have breakfast first.” Olli suggested.
They all got up and started to make their way to the kitchen, Tommi looked around in surprise when he saw the extra decorations.
“Like it?” Niko asked.
“Yeah,” Tommi said, “but it's a shame we won't be home to enjoy it too much.”
Olli winked at Niko as they walked into the kitchen, all of them sitting with full plates before they decided to tell Tommi what was going on.
“You don't need to pack,” Niko told him casually.
“Why not?” Tommi asked with a frown, “I could do it later but I would rather just take care of it.”
“We're staying home.” Joonas said, “just the six of us.”
“But your families!” Tommi protested, “aren’t you going to miss them?”
“Not particularly,” Aleksi shrugged.
“We might,” Joel told him, “but we all want to try it.”
“We're a family too,” Joonas pointed out, “so we're still with family.”
Tommi seemed to be in thought for a few moments before nodding and smiling a little, “sounds like a good plan… but if we're staying here, I’m going to make the ham.”
“Oh thank goodness,” Aleksi laughed, “I don't know if Joonas and I could handle it.”
They spent their day curled up on the couch watching movies, repeating the same the next day. On Christmas Eve, Joonas and Aleksi cooked up a buffet’s worth of treats so they could feast all day, only pausing to go to the sauna. As promised Tommi cooked up the whole Christmas dinner, and all of them found themselves groaning how they wouldn't be able to perform a show if they had to.
Christmas morning they found themselves lingering in bed, wrapped around each other and unwilling to leave the warm blankets, Rilla and Rommi curled up near their feet and peaceful.
“Thank you,” Tommi said quietly once it was obvious they were all awake.
Niko looked up at him, “for what?”
“For being my family,” he said simply, “for being here for me.”
“Of course,” Niko pressed a kiss to his jaw, the furthest he could reach while tucked under several arms. “We love you Tommi.”
Tommi smiled back down at him before looking at each of them in turn.
“I love all of you too, with my whole heart.”
They all pressed closer, soft words of endearment passing around.
Niko sighed contently and closed his eyes; their relationship may have started as a rumor but he wouldn't change a thing, he really should send a thank you card to the person who started it.
After all, how else would he be spending a lazy Christmas morning with his family?