Work Text:
The clock struck nine as Yamato elegantly signed the last report in need of his approval. He placed his silver pen in its case with grace before stretching the fingers of his dominant hand. Glancing at the small clock on his desk, which was an exact replica of the enormous one in the entrance hall, Yamato felt very pleased with himself. He had kept his promise.
Any other day he would be working hard deep into the night. If he wasn’t writing and approving reports until five in the morning, he would be strengthening seals or fighting powerful demons with his strongest and most trusted subordinates. Today, however, he had finished early upon Hibiki’s request. Unless any emergencies would arise, he was free for the rest of the evening and night.
Yamato couldn’t say he knew why Hibiki had asked him to come home early today specifically, but he figured it had been a while since they had been able to spend some time together outside of work. Taking the most recent reports with him for some rereading, Yamato exited his office. The few subordinates he met on the way to the elevator greeted him with ‘Chief!’ as per protocol. Yamato dismissed them with a single stern nod of acknowledgment each time.
Everything was in order. Nothing inside JP’s could have given Yamato even the tiniest hint on why today was special. Not even his personal driver, who had been driving him around since his childhood, let anything on as he opened the door of his car for him. The sparkling lights and cheerful music outside eluded Yamato as he was driven home, for he was studying the reports he had signed earlier.
Yamato arrived at the apartment he shared with Hibiki shortly. Only recently had they purchased the place together. Yamato hadn’t seen the need for it. JP’s HQ Tokyo had its own private wing and the Hotsuin mansion held more space than they would ever be able to fill with just the two of them. Even so, Hibiki had insisted they needed a home to call their own. Why exactly was beyond Yamato, but if it made Hibiki happy he wouldn’t complain.
Turning the keys, the front door to their apartment opened with a satisfying click. Yamato pushed the door open, stepped inside and began the lengthy process off untying his boots. Leaving his coat and boots at the door, he ventured deeper inside the place he couldn’t call home just yet, only to be greeted by a sight unlike anything he had seen before.
The first thing to catch his eye was the Christmas tree standing at the focal point of their living room. Even from where he was standing, he could tell a lot of time must have gone into decorating it. The overall theme for the Christmas tree seemed to be ‘silver’ seeing as only the Christmas lights had a warm, golden glow to them.
Wanting to have a closer look at the variety of silver ornaments in the tree, Yamato unwittingly approached it. Tiny angels, handmade snowflakes, spray painted pinecones and an array of different silver-toned Christmas balls made for a tasteful Christmas tree. The tree-topper was a classic silver star.
The Christmas tree wasn’t the only addition to their apartment. As Yamato looked around, he came to notice subtle and not so subtle Christmas decorations hidden in plain sight. He didn’t recall the pillows on the couch looking festive before, nor had there been candles on the dinner table and in front of the windows lightening up the living room.
Yamato was still taking everything in when Hibiki’s head peeked around the corner. The surprise on Hibiki’s face was real when he saw Yamato, but that expression was quickly replaced by the biggest smile he could manage. Before Yamato could do as much as give Hibiki a belated ‘I’m home’, he received a warm embrace and a peck on his lips by his significant other.
“Merry Christmas, Yamato,” Hibiki beamed, “I didn’t think you would be home this early. A Christmas miracle indeed~”
Putting one and one together, Yamato finally had a general idea of why Hibiki had made him do a pinky swear to finish work early today. Still, he felt like Hibiki had some explaining to do.
“…I was under the impression Christmas is rarely celebrated in Japan.”
Hibiki gave him a mischievous look, almost as if he was letting him in on a secret.
“It’s considered a holiday for couples. I knew you would never agree to watching the Christmas light and getting fried chicken from the KFC, so I brought the Christmas cheer into our home instead. What do you think?”
There were many thoughts going through Yamato’s mind at that moment, but none of them had anything to do with the excessive decorating spree Hibiki had gone through. Hibiki was still holding him close and smiling from ear to ear. He smelled of cinnamon, vanilla and butter. Had he been baking?
“It’s not very save to have candles burning so close to the curtains. We should keep an eye on them.”
“Hey now,” Hibiki pouted as he let go of Yamato, “You can’t see it from here, but I placed a bucket of water behind the couch just in case. Safety first and all that.”
“Safety first,” Yamato agreed. He didn’t know what Hibiki had planned, but he was certain watching their recently bought house burn down wasn’t on their to do list for this evening. Not that he had any idea of what he could expect. Not once had he celebrated Christmas, or any other holiday for that matter. Although, now that he thought about it, that wasn’t entirely true. They had celebrated their birthdays together before, but every year he felt like he was celebrating Hibiki’s birthday moreso than his own.
“If you could sit down at the dinner table and make yourself comfortable that would be perfect,” Hibiki said, being his usual mindreading self, “I’ve got a few surprises planned for you.”
Yamato did as he was told and watched Hibiki leave the living room. Sitting at the dinner table and folding his hands, Yamato mumbled: “I hate surprises.”
“I know you do~!” Hibiki sang from the kitchen.
As Yamato waited for Hibiki to return, he watched the flames of the candles in front of him. Judging by the lack of wax dripping on the table, the candles were recently lid. Hibiki must have finished decorating their home just in time. Yamato didn’t understand why this was necessary. Neither of them were Christian and they had long since passed the age at which it was still acceptable to believe in Santa-san.
Yamato was still thinking hard about what could possibly have been Hibiki’s motivation for all of this when Hibiki returned from the kitchen. In one hand he was carrying two of their best plates, two forks and a single knife and server set while in the other a charming, white cake with strawberries on top. Hibiki looked more than a little bit proud of himself as he placed the cake down in front of Yamato.
“Have you ever tried one of these before? It's a sponge cake decorated with strawberries and whipped cream. I made this one all by myself! Definitely didn’t ask Io for help at some point. Definitely didn’t almost poison Daichi at my first try. Don’t be silly.”
When after some painful seconds Yamato still hadn’t eagerly taken up the knife to cut himself a piece of cake, Hibiki moved to do it for him instead. Yamato entrusted his life to Hibiki on the battlefield, but the same couldn’t be said of Hibiki entering the battlefield that was the kitchen.
Admittedly, Yamato couldn’t cook any better, and Hibiki was slowly improving, but not long ago Hibiki had been that poor student who lived on instant noodles only. Funny how Shijima would always claim Hibiki was good at everything while Hibiki was sorely lacking in cooking skills.
“Come on, try it,” Hibiki coerced Yamato into taking a bite, “You’ll be better off than Daichi, I promise. This time I poured all my heart and soul into it… And I also followed the instructions to the letter.”
Yamato hesitated momentarily before picking up his fork and cutting off a piece of cake. Despite his prior experience with Hibiki’s cooking he took the bite and found himself pleasantly surprised. He had expected the cake to be more like a rich fruit cake, but the sponge cake was light and not overly sweet. There were sparkles in Hibiki’s eyes as he waited for Yamato’s reaction.
“I can taste the following of the instructions to the letter.”
“The love! You can taste the love!”
“No, it’s most definitely the recipe that’s good.”
“You’re going to make me cry on Christmas. You’re awful.”
Yamato huffed out a laugh before taking another bite. Hibiki, albeit a little teary-eyed, started munching his own piece of cake down. Although Yamato was anything but a sweet tooth, he enjoyed the cake Hibiki had made for him quite a bit. His plate was empty before Hibiki’s and that said enough by itself. The grin on Hibiki’s face told Yamato he knew what was left unspoken as well.
“OK, next I have another surprise for you,” Hibiki beamed after having finished his own piece of cake as well. Before Yamato could protest, Hibiki had disappeared again. Yamato feared the worst as he heard Hibiki making noise in the kitchen.
It didn’t take Hibiki all that long to return, and when he did he was bringing a woven basket with gingerbread cookies inside with him. Immediately Yamato noticed that those cookies weren’t any ordinary gingerbread cookies. Their shapes and colors were painfully familiar.
"Hibiki, those were the alien invaders,” Yamato grunted, a deep frown on his face as he looked at the Septentrione cookies, “So many lives were lost because of them."
"Yeah, didn't they turn out cute?"
“That’s not very tasteful.”
“They taste delicious, I can confirm!”
At the very least this explained why Hibiki smelled of cinnamon, vanilla and butter. Polaris had heard their wish to turn back time, so in that sense the Septentriones had yet to invade them, if they ever would. Even so, Yamato couldn’t say he was a fan.
Yamato might not be impressed, but it was obvious that Hibiki was way into it. He picked a handful of cookies and shoved them into Yamato’s face.
"Yamato, look. I made one for each of Alcor's three forms too."
"Three too many."
Yamato’s brutally honest answer almost made Hibiki drop the cookies he had worked so hard on. Not wanting them to break, Hibiki placed them back into the basket before Yamato could surprise him with another harsh comment like that. Having noticed how quickly Yamato had become irritated, Hibiki softly pinched his cheek in a playful manner to make the tension between them vanish.
“Don’t be such a bully on Christmas. I thought you two had made up?”
Brushing Hibiki’s hand away, Yamato answered: “I prefer we keep our distance.”
“Hm-mm. Well, moving on. I have one more surprise for you.”
Yamato thanked the Heavens.
“Oh, actually. That’s not true. There are two more surprises left.”
Yamato cursed his own existence, but he felt a small relief when Hibiki didn’t leave to head into the kitchen again. Instead, Hibiki walked over to the Chirstmas tree to pick up a small gift warped in shiny, silver wrapping paper. It tree itself was so impressive that Yamato hadn’t noticed there had been anything underneath it before.
“What do you give someone who already has everything they need?” Hibiki asked him. Thinking it was a rhetorical question, Yamato remained silent. Surely enough, Hibiki continued. “You Google ‘what do you give a person that has everything’ only to realize those ideas aren’t your own and feel very impersonal.”
Yamato couldn’t help but snort at that. He appreciated the gesture, but indeed he had no material desires. Whatever was inside that wrapping paper, it was most likely going to be a waste of their time. Out of respect for Hibiki, Yamato took the gift that was offered to him and opened it.
“Sorry if it’s too sappy. I couldn’t think of anything better.”
In Yamato’s hands there was a small book titled ‘What I Love About Yamato, by Hibiki’, with both ‘Yamato’ and ‘Hibiki’ being handwritten where there had left space on the hard cover to write. Curious about the content of the book, Yamato flipped through it. There were 112 pages of fill-in-the-blank lines, each and every blank having been filled in by Hibiki.
‘I am kind of obsessed with your smile’
‘I love how you love to try out new things and experiences with me’
‘You have a great taste in men ; )’
These lines and many more were written in the book. Yamato couldn’t put into words how receiving a gift like this made him feel. ‘Happy’ didn’t seem to fully grasp what he was feeling in its entirety, neither did ‘delighted’ or ‘overjoyed’. Perhaps the word he was looking for was just ‘grateful’.
“Thank you, I quite like it… I wish I would have anything to give to you in return, but alas, I am here empty-handed.”
“If you are happy with it, then that is the best gift you could have given me,” Hibiki assured him, his voice soft and gentle.
Yamato carefully closed the book and stared at his hands. Perhaps surprises weren’t all that bad as long as they came from Hibiki. Having received such a wonderful gift, Yamato was curious to find out what the last thing was Hibiki had in mind for him.
“Want to go outside to cool off a little bit?” Hibiki asked, softly still.
Yamato looked up from his hands to see a very apparent blush color Hibiki’s cheeks. The sight surprised him more than the Christmas tree had. The most sentimental one of them would be Hibiki, but it was rare for him to show embarrassment. Perhaps the book Yamato had received held even more meaning to it than he would have thought.
“Yes, I would be happy to, but there is one task we must attend to before we leave.”
Placing the book down on the table, Yamato rested his weight on one arm as he leaned forward. Expecting something to happen, Hibiki mimicked Yamato and leaned in closer. Yamato took a deep breath before cupping his free hand behind the candles on the table and blowing them out. Hibiki blinked as smoke spiraled up between them.
“Safety first,” Yamato commented smugly.
“…Safety first,” Hibiki agreed.
Now that Yamato wasn’t engrossed in his paper work he could take a moment to enjoy the sparkling lights and cheerful music outside. It was already getting late, but many couples and even some families were still out and about. Yamato had never realized how busy the streets of Tokyo could be around Christmas, mostly because he had never gone outside to experience it.
He didn’t think he could stay out for too long, but so far he was having a good time. Hibiki had grabbed his hand as soon as they had locked the door behind them and Yamato wasn’t planning on letting him go. There was something about the way Hibiki pointed at special sights as he went out of his way to show them to Yamato which made him seem even more endearing than usual.
Hibiki seemed to have a final destination in mind as he led the way, and surely enough Yamato noticed they were getting closer to Yoyogi Park after some time. They clearly weren’t the only couple with that destination in mind. Yamato couldn’t have thought that anything could keep him in suspense like this. He wanted to know why they were heading to Yoyogi Park. He knew that Hibiki would tell him what they were about to see in a heartbeat if he asked, but more than anything else he wanted Hibiki to take him there and show him.
What Yamato saw when they arrived at Yoyogi Park was far beyond his expectations. The trees had shed their leaves a season ago, but they were no less beautiful for they had been given tiny blue lights to light up their trunks and branches for as far as the eye could see. It was like a new night sky within reach.
“Surprise!” Hibiki beamed, squeezing Yamato’s hand gently, “I’m so glad I got to show you Ao no Dokutsu. The park will be closing soon, but somehow we made it? I should thank you for keeping your pinky promise.”
Hibiki’s smile was the center of the universe under the new night sky. Driven by an emotion Yamato didn’t know very well, he brushed Hibiki’s hair away and softly pressed his lips against his forehead. They stayed like that for a moment, and then another, before Yamato leaned back and returned Hibiki’s space to him.
“Merry Christmas,” Yamato hummed, looking at Hibiki like only a man in love could, “Forgive me for not returning your wishes sooner.”
“…Don’t mention it,” Hibiki replied dazedly, returning the look Yamato was giving him, “and thank you.”