Work Text:
“So, which of you is dressing up as Santa?”
The loud slurp from Satoru’s monster frappe drowned some of Suguru’s surprised haa? and Yu’s sputter as he nearly chocked on his own concoction. Kento was, blessedly, absent from the impromptu meeting, having been called back to the office to finish up a last-minute report by a frazzled-sounding Kiyotaka and an overly-apologetic Takuma. Still, Yu would absolutely make sure that he heard about this and dealt with his husband accordingly.
“What do you mean?” Suguru asked once the initial surprise had passed. “There’s not going to be a Santa at the office party… Right??”
The last part of his query was directed at Yu, who was shaking his head as he wiped down his chin. “Not that I’m aware of. And I should know, I’m organizing it!”
Satoru rolled his eyes and his head, sighing deep and long-suffering, the output rivaling Kento’s most soul-wrenching ones. “Of course I don’t mean for the office. It’s for the girls! One of you’s gotta dress up as Santa and the other one has to hype it all up—you know, get them to leave out milk and cookies, setting up their stockings and, most important of all, making sure they go to bed early! Then Santa comes, a bit too loudly but still kinda sneaky and leaves presents under the tree for them!”
Suguru and Yu looked at each other, frowning and blinking in confusion, then back at Satoru. “You do this for your kids?” Suguru eventually asked.
Satoru nodded, solemnly, as he crossed his arms over his chest and took on a wise, lecturing air. “Of course! I’m Santa and Kento takes care of the rest. To be honest, Megumin and Nobara don’t quite fall for it anymore but Yuuji and Tsumiki love it. Although Miki might just be indulging us but,” he shrugged, letting the rest of the sentence hang in the air.
“I don’t know,” Suguru said, frowning still. “Mimi and Nana are still a bit skittish around us, I wouldn’t want to scare them.”
“That’s why you need to prep them! So that they’re excited rather than scared.”
“I mean,” Yu said, chewing on his straw. “It might be fun,” he looked at Suguru as he continued to ponder out loud. “They already know about Santa, and I think that Mimiko is really excited about gifts. Nanako is a bit more reserved, but I think we could get her on board.”
“You think it would help them open up a bit more?” Suguru asked.
Yu thought about it for a moment before nodding, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I think so, yeah.”
Suguru took a deep breath before turning back to Satoru. “Okay, then… Why don’t you walk us through your usual plan and we can take it from there?”
Satoru grinned, clapping his hands excitedly. “Of course! I’ll even give you the number for the gal that makes my costume—she should be able to fit you just in time!”
“Wait—I’m going to be Santa?” Suguru asked, not sounding convinced.
“Well, you’re the tallest,” Satoru said, finger on his chin as he looked between his two friends. “Yu-chan is a bit broader, though… honestly, either one of you can pull it off. I’m the one that does it ‘cause of my hair and ‘cause I like playing the bit, plus Kento is a bit too serious for the whole jolly act. But you can decide while we plan the rest!”
Exchanging slightly nervous looks, Suguru and Yu nodded and then listened to Satoru’s idea.
Following Satoru’s advice, Suguru and Yu sat down with Mimiko and Nanako and told them that they would be decorating the apartment to make it cozier for Santa to visit them over Christmas. They were a bit skeptic at first but no more than they were about most things since they were adopted. Thankfully, they were close with Satoru and Kento’s kids, who were quick to be excited that they would be doing all the Christmas stuff, too. Yuuji, in particular, was very keen on letting them know how cool Santa was, how generous and kind, too. Tsumiki, the oldest of them all, made sure they understood that the more they participated in the Christmas spirit, the more likely it’d be for them to actually catch a glimpse of Santa, turning it into somewhat of a mission for the younger girls to fulfill. Suguru hadn’t been too sure about the tactic at first, but when he saw how excited Nanako had gotten—and, following his sister’s lead, Mimiko, too—he made it a point to get something extra nice for Tsumiki as a gift.
So, for the first two weeks of December, the Haibara-Geto household was concentrated on making it the most Santa-friendly place in all of Tokyo. Yu and Suguru made sure to involve the twins in the whole process, from choosing decorations and ornaments to picking out a tree. They were also very diligent in choosing presents for his friends and dads, relying on Kento and Satoru for the latter so they wouldn’t find out ahead of time.
They ended up deciding that Suguru should dress up as Santa, so Satoru took him to meet the seamstress that made his own Santa costume. Hiding the suit took a bit of extra effort since the girls had insisted on decorating every single inch of the apartment but they managed to find a spot that they wouldn’t get into, accidentally or otherwise. On Christmas Eve, they all had dinner together and then Suguru excused himself, saying he needed to go to the store for some last minute things. Haibara made sure to usher the girls to the bathroom to wash up while Suguru took out the Santa suit to the laundry room to change and wait until Yu sent him a message with the all-clear.
It took a bit longer than they’d anticipated because Mimiko was adamant that everything had to be perfect, so she double-checked all the stockings by the fireplace, rearranged the cookies in their plate at least three times, tested the milk twice—replacing it the first time because it tastes off, Haibara-san—and counted the presents under the tree thrice to make sure nothing was missing (and to make sure Santa really did bring them loads of stuff, according to Nanako). Eventually, though, she was satisfied that everything was in its place and allowed Yu to take her and her sister to their bedroom, where he read them a bedtime story until they fell asleep. He tucked them in and kissed their foreheads before heading downstairs and messaging Suguru to let him know he could come out.
When Yu saw him waddling into the living room, he had to bite his cheek not to laugh out loud and wake the girls. The seamstress had really gone all in, padding not only Suguru’s midsection but also his legs and arms, making walking slightly difficult, especially with the big burlap sack full of gifts that he was trying to balance on his shoulder.
“You look adorable,” Yu said, biting on his finger to keep his giggles at a minimum volume.
“Thanks. I don’t feel it,” Suguru groused. With a huge sigh, he said, “So, now what?”
“Now you gotta go out and come back in. I’ll take a couple of pictures to show the girls in case they don’t wake up to see you skulking around.”
“As long as you don’t show anyone else. And by anyone I mean Satoru and Shoko.”
“I promise,” Yu said, grin too wide and mischievous to be taken seriously.
Resigned to the inevitable bullying from his best friends, Suguru huffed and made his way outside of the apartment while Yu ‘hid’ behind the couch in the living room. Suguru made sure to be a little noisy as he came back inside, careful not to knock onto or break anything. He jingled the set of bells that came with the suit to simulate the noise of Santa’s sleigh every so often, glancing towards the back of the apartment where the girls’ room was. He didn’t hear them stir so he continued what he was doing, carefully setting the gifts for the girls under the tree and adding a few candies and trinkets to each of the stockings, even Yu’s and his. When he was done with that, he made a show of drinking the glass of milk the girls had set out for Santa, grimacing a little when he realized they had changed his skimmed milk for whole milk—that’s why Mimiko had deemed it “off” and Yu hadn’t had the heart to tell her. He ate a couple of cookies, making sure to leave crumbs behind, and then he jingled the bells one last time, doing his best impression of a Santa laugh as he made his way outside of the apartment again.
Through it all, Yu took several pictures and even a short video as Suguru ate the snack the girls set out. He was really tempted to hug and kiss him, feeling incredibly fond for the effort that he put to make the girls happy, but Kento had warned him against it. He and Satoru had apparently not thought things through the first time and Nobara caught Kento kissing “Santa”, causing her to kick Satoru’s shins and cry bloody murder when she thought “Santa” was stealing his dad from Satoru. It had taken a lot of bribes for her to let go of the issue—reasoning with her hadn’t worked, and Satoru was adamant that he wanted to keep the tradition going—and Kento didn’t want Yu and Suguru to go through the same thing, especially with the twins being far more skittish than Nobara and the rest of their kids.
Still. The suit was theirs to keep, so he figured he could get Kento and Satoru to look after the twins one of these days so he and Suguru could have some fun…
Come morning, the girls were disappointed that they hadn’t heard Santa, but were quickly appeased by the photographic “evidence” that Yu and Suguru provided (the cookie crumbles and gifts also helped a great deal). Mimiko was absolutely delighted to find that Santa was real and had liked the decorations they spent so much time working on, and even Nanako seemed pleased with the results. When Satoru and Kento stopped by later that day with their kids in tow, the twins were quick to tell them all about Santa’s visit, with Yuuji also excitedly letting them know about Santa’s visit to their own house.
Sitting on the couch with steaming mugs of chocolate and their arms around each other, Suguru and Yu couldn’t help but smile at how happy the twins looked. It had been a long, rough road since they first arrived in their care but it was certainly worth it.
“Thank you,” Yu whispered to Kento, who was sitting on their one armchair with Satoru dozing off on his lap.
Kento smiled and shrugged. “You really have to thank Satoru. He’s the one keeping whimsy alive around here.”
Yu nodded and leaned closer against Suguru, who was also looking a bit sleepy. He decided then to help Satoru keep whimsy alive for many more years to come.