one.

When you're nine-years-old and the world is yours to play around with, holidays always seem like the most delightful time of the year. Christmas was always the one, the mega one, the best day of the year to Keith because it was filled with all of his favorite things: Santa Claus sneaking down his chimney to drop off his yearly present for being a good boy (Keith thought he hid his ornery side pretty well considering nothing he ever did scored him points against the big guy—he always ended up on the nice list!); his parents being able to spend more time at home so they could all bake cookies and watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate and paint ornaments for the tree together; sometimes, if he was really lucky, snow would come and blanket over his sleepy town like a holiday card, untouched and perfect; and of course, the presents. He was an only child, and at this time of year, he was always thankful for that because he'd always thought that meant more presents for him.

Those had always been his favorite things about Christmas growing up, but this year was different. This year, he had a surprise waiting for him at school.

It was the last day of school before winter break, and it was unbelievably freezing as he ran through the elementary school and into his classroom, cheeks flushed as he panted heavily. He was in the middle of unraveling the thick scarf his mother had practically strangled him with in her effort to keep him warm when he spotted him—his best friend.

Shiro was sitting at their table of conjoined desks, his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes widened nervously upon noticing Keith. But Keith couldn't stop staring at the enticing huge red box perfectly wrapped on Shiro's desk.

Keith hurriedly tossed his backpack and thick jacket into his cubby hole, no time to hang it up on his rack, and then dashed over to Shiro, sliding into the open chair right beside him.

"Wow," Keith breathed, roughly scooping the box up between his tiny hands as he inspected it. It was red with little golden stripes across the face of it, a lightly golden ribbon tied around it. The edges were straight, showing off the impeccable wrapping job done, not a crinkle or tear in sight. Keith himself had trouble making presents look pretty as he wrapped them, but his parents loved them anyway. "Did you wrap this yourself?"

Shiro was watching Keith with wide, excited eyes as Keith fawned over the present. "Yeah," he said shyly, a tint of pink touching his cheeks. "My parents helped, too, though," he said quickly, but Keith was unperturbed by this.

"You're so great at this. You should become a present wrapper. I've seen those people at the mall wrapping presents for people during Christmas, and you'd be awesome at that."

Shiro chuckled, glancing down at the present once more as he scratched lightly behind his ear. "Yeah, maybe. Maybe when I grow up."

"No, you should do it now. Why wait?"

Shiro squinted, thinking. "Because I'm nine?"

Keith snorted, gently laying the present back down on Shiro's desk as if it were his mother's fine china. "Who cares? You're just as good as the adults who wrap presents. They could give you your own section so you can wrap other kids' presents while the adults wrap the other adults' presents."

Shiro breathed a laugh through his nose, shaking his head lightly. "I don't think that's how it works."

Keith shrugged, tugging at the scarf still half tangled around his neck. "Well, it should. Who's that present for anyway? Why'd you bring it to school?" It seemed pretty dumb to Keith to bring something so fragile to school because their classmates were brutal, and Keith knew if anyone got their hands on this pretty box, they'd rip it to shreds.

The color was rising up on Shiro's cheeks again, and Keith almost poked his cheek to tease him like he always did, but Shiro was already in the process of slowly sliding the present onto Keith's own desk, stopping the joke before he could even formulate it in his head.

"Actually … it's for you. Merry Christmas, Keith."

Keith stilled, his heart going into overdrive at Shiro's words. His eyes widened out of his head as he glanced between the little red box and Shiro's nervous little smile, daring himself to believe.

"For—For me?" Keith said, sticking a finger to his own chest. He couldn't believe it. Nobody other than his mom and dad had ever gotten him a present before. He'd seen some of the other kids pass gifts around to their best friends before, but before this year, Keith hadn't even had a best friend to share in that fun with. Shiro had just moved here at the end of the school year last year, and the two of them had hit it off at once. It was even better when Keith realized that Shiro had also moved into his neighborhood. He was at one end of the block, and Keith was on the other, and it only took one minute of fast running to go from Keith's front door to Shiro's vast backyard where they spent most of their summer playing at.

Shiro and Keith hadn't even talked about exchanging gifts, and honestly, after so long of never receiving one, he'd grown accustomed to not basking in that warm cheery holiday glow with someone else from school.

But he felt it now. His heart was fluttering with excitement, and his throat was holding in a stalled breath, and his palms were twitching with the need to just rip into the box already like a savage, but he was still waiting on Shiro. Keith didn't know why, but he just needed another confirmation that it really was for him, and that it was okay.

Shiro nodded at him with a growing smile as he noticed Keith brimming with hopeful energy, and once he got that head nod, Keith was gone. He grabbed up the box within his fierce hands and was about to tear into the wrapping paper when he stopped himself. He very gently unwrapped the ribbon with care, not wanting to damage the thing completely, but once he laid the ribbon out on his desk, he tore into the rest of the wrapping paper without forgiveness, eager to see what Shiro had gotten him.

In his hands was a small plastic box, though it was bigger than his hands. The picture of the lion on the side was what caught his attention, a translucent edge to the lion's red color garnering an entranced oooh from Keith. "What is it?" Keith said, unbothered with trying to read past the picture.

"It's a puzzle, sort of. A 3D one where you slide the hard pieces into place on top of each other so that you can see the shape of it. I have some at home, like, a bird and a flower, and I even have a lion, too, but mine's black. I know you like red, and I know you love lions, so I thought you'd like it."

"It's so cool," Keith breathed as he admired the end result of the put together lion from the picture on the outside. It was going to look so neat on his windowsill along with his other action figures he had standing on their little perches. "I'm gonna make it as soon as I get home! And then set it on my windowsill beside Thor. Oh, man, this is the best," he said, because he really couldn't say it enough. This was the coolest thing he'd ever gotten, and exactly the thing he didn't know that he wanted. Shiro seemed to know him better than he knew himself.

Keith turned to Shiro with a grin, watching as Shiro's eyes sparkled with delight. "I'm glad you like it," Shiro said. "We kind of match now with my black one and your red one."

Keith very much liked the sound of that.

The teacher called out to the class announcing that she was about to take roll, and Keith hurriedly ran back to his cubby to gently stuff the present in his backpack and hang it all up like he was supposed to when he came in. He finished unraveling his scarf from his neck and shoved that into the pocket of his jacket hanging up before he went back to his desk to toss all the wrapping paper into the trash can.

Shiro was still smiling to himself as Keith returned to his seat beside him, but as Keith began kicking his feet against the tiled floor as he waited for his name to be called, he remembered himself.

"Wait," Keith said, his heart panicking a bit as he swiveled around to face Shiro. "I didn't get you anything. I didn't know we were doing presents, or else I would have gotten you something cool, too."

Keith swallowed against the rising guilt stirring up in his throat, biting at his thumb nail as he thought of a way to rectify this situation. Maybe he could go to the mall with his mom after school and pick up something for Shiro. But, what did Shiro like? He knew he liked space stuff and astronauts, but what kind of space toys even were there?

Shiro shrugged one shoulder and shook his head, completely at ease. "That's okay, Keith. I didn't give you a present just because I wanted one back. I gave you one because you're my best friend. I always do this for my friends."

Keith gazed around the classroom, taking in each and every kid fiddling at their desk, but he didn't see anyone else with a present. Then again, Shiro didn't really have many friends here. Some of the other kids thought Shiro was a little weird because of the way he never broke any of the rules, always behaving and being polite to everyone like a real teacher's pet.

Keith remembered the very first time he'd ever spoken to Shiro, and that was because some kid was giving Shiro hell during recess for tattling on her when she was cheating off of Shiro's math quiz earlier in the day. When Keith had caught sight of the slight tremble in Shiro's bottom lip as the girl continued to call him names where none of the teachers were within ear shot, something fierce had zinged throughout Keith's chest, and that spark pushed Keith to run over to the squabble with a worm he'd dug out of the ground, slimy and squirming between his dirty fingers. He'd tossed it over in the girl's hair, and she ran off screaming with her friends to go and tattle on Keith herself.

When it was just the two of them, Keith had asked Shiro if he was okay, and after sniffling a few times, he'd thanked Keith and offered to play tetherball with him. They never stopped playing together since then.

So, maybe Keith was Shiro's only real friend here. The thought shouldn't have made him feel so warm and giddy inside, but it did. He didn't have to share him; Shiro would always be willing to pick Keith first, and Keith would always pick Shiro first. That's what best friends did.

"No, I'm gonna get you a present, too. You're my best friend, I won't leave you hanging," Keith said, and he grinned as Shiro smiled widely at him, eyes sparkling. "So, what kind of toys do you like?"

After school, Keith had begged his parents to take him to the mall so he could pick out something fantastic for Shiro. He showed them the lion Shiro had given him, all freshly made and looking cooler than the picture, and after admiring it with some fondness, his mom agreed to take him while his dad stayed behind to finish up dinner.

He didn't really learn anything new about what Shiro liked. "I just love space. Well, and birds. I want a bird so bad, but my parents won't let me have one," Shiro had said earlier in the day.

"Can we get him a bird?" Keith asked his mom as he pulled and tugged on her hand to get her to walk around the mall faster. She just wasn't moving fast enough. "He loves birds, but his parents won't get him one."

His mother chuckled, tightening her grip on his hand. "A bird is a bit much. That's something his parents would have to get him. Why don't you get him a stuffed animal bird? I'm sure he'd appreciate it all the same."

Keith groaned. "Mom, stuffed animals are so lame. I have to get him something fun! Like the lion puzzle he gave me."

Keith led them to the giant toy store nestled into the corner of the mall, dropping his mother's hand and running off through the aisles. She called after him, but it was weak. She'd find him.

There was nothing extraordinary about any of the toys he saw, all just the same action figures of the same super heroes, and aisles full of dumb board games that Keith had played a million times over. Nothing he saw screamed worthy of Shiro, and his heart was starting to dim as he reached the end of the aisles. Keith huffed and doubled back, hoping to find something he'd missed the first time, but it was no use. None of these toys were good enough for Shiro.

His mom found him as he sulked on his knees in front of a little toy bird inside of a plastic cage. It was incredibly stupid, but it was the only thing in this whole place with birds that wasn't totally lame. He didn't want to get it, but…

"This is cute," his mom said, reaching down to pick up the toy Keith was glaring at. She turned it over in her hands, inspecting the blue bird nestled inside the green cage. Those colors didn't even look good together.

"It's not what I wanted," Keith said, picking at a tear in his jeans at the knee. "I want to get him something that will blow his mind. Not something he probably could have just picked up himself."

His mother was silent as Keith's words sat between them, stewing in the air tensely. He didn't know what to do, and it was easier to confess his reluctance for this toy as he stared down at the imperfection on his jeans instead of the pity in his mom's eyes.

When his mom set the toy back where it was and firmly pulled Keith up by his arm, he was surprised enough to glance up at her, that heavy feeling in his chest lessening at the determined glint in her eye.

"I know something he will never be able to replicate. Something only you can give him," she said conspiratorially, as if she were sharing the secrets of the universe with him.

Keith's eyes widened minutely, his chest beginning to rise with hope. "What is it?"

His mother simply widened her smile, her eyes twinkling with ideas. She grabbed his hand up in hers and bopped his nose. "Come with me."

She took him all the way home, and Keith kept pestering her with questions about what they were going to do. Were they not going to buy anything? Were they going to make something? Keith's dad was pretty handy with a wood-saw and would make cool, little knick knacks that he'd paint and then decorate the house with. Their house was full of tiny elephants and miniature houses and, at Keith's request, lions that were sprinkled along the kitchen counter and over the fireplace and on tables in all the other rooms.

Keith wasn't so gifted in the art of making things, all of his paper mâché efforts of making a simple bowl turning fruitless every time he went to try. It didn't bother Keith that much because he was pretty good at painting. He could definitely paint a bowl better than he could make one any day.

Maybe he'd be painting something. But did he know how to draw a bird? He'd never tried before, but he could learn. For Shiro, he'd become a pro.

But when they got home and his mom lingered in the closed garage, Keith standing by their car in curiosity, she slid a step ladder over to a high shelf and reached up as far as her tiny frame would take her before she came back down, jumping off the ladder with ease and presenting her hand out to Keith.

It was perfect.

The next day, Keith spent a majority of time painting in the garage with his dad as they both sat on top of a huge tarp his dad had spread out on the garage floor. They were definitely in for a messy day, and Keith went from focusing hard on his task at hand, wanting the end result to come out perfectly because Shiro deserved perfection, to messing around with his dad and swiping paint down the side of his face. It was the best way to start off winter break, and at the end of the day, he was covered in paint on both his clothes and his face, but his masterpiece was finished.

Keith hoped Shiro loved it.

On the day before Christmas Eve, Keith was bouncing with excitement because today was the day. He could finally go see Shiro.

Both of his parents walked with him down to the house on the opposite end of the sidewalk, a small, wrapped present nestled tightly between his gloved hands. The wrapping was a bit shoddy, and Keith was a little embarrassed at all the weird ways the red wrapping paper stuck out, but he'd wanted to wrap it himself with no help from anyone. Shiro probably wouldn't mind anyway.

This year, Keith was lucky because snow was beginning to touch down on their town today, small snowflakes sprinkling down lightly as he walked at a pace matching parents. He was dying to get to Shiro's house, but he couldn't help the way his body was alight with nerves. What if Shiro already had something like this? He knew his mom had said nobody could replicate this, but that didn't mean Shiro didn't have something like this already. And, what if Shiro didn't like the colors? Did Keith even paint it right?

All of these questions were buzzing through his mind as he finally reached the edge of Shiro's driveway, and with an encouraging nod from his parents, he ran up the driveway and skipped across the grass to reach the front door. He took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

He waited and waited but there weren't any sounds coming from inside. Keith took a tiny step back to gaze around the windows of the house, finally noting that there were no lights on inside save for the bright porch light Keith was currently bathed under. He swallowed and rang the doorbell again, but after waiting for another minute, nobody came.

His heart that he hadn't even known was so full of hope instantly dropped, the idea that Shiro wouldn't even be home never once crossing his mind. But he couldn't have come earlier because he'd been busy helping his parents bake cookies and watch holiday movies while his project dried, and now he couldn't go tomorrow because tomorrow was Christmas Eve and those days were meant to be spent with family. This had been his only window.

With a defeated sigh, Keith circled around and skipped down the two steps of the porch and back onto the sidewalk, but as he turned at the end to go back to his parents, the sound of his name flew through the air, reigniting his heart.

"Keith!"

He whipped his head around toward the other side of the sidewalk, and there he could see a small figure running ahead of a small group of people, the distinctive shape of Shiro becoming clearer the closer to Keith he got.

Keith couldn't keep the goofy grin off his lips even if he tried—and, he tried. But, Shiro was incredibly magnetic, his enthusiasm and brightness contagious to even the meanest of kids. Keith had been immediately entranced from day one, and that was no one's fault but Shiro's.

Shiro skidded to a stop a few feet away from Keith, his own grin huge as he took in the sight of Keith standing there with the present within his grasp. There was a flush high on Shiro's cheeks at the rush of cold swirling all around them, and Shiro blinked hard against the constant rain of snowflakes that were beginning to catch onto the tips of his eyelashes. Keith had to bite down on a chuckle.

"I was just out caroling with my family. Some new friends of my parents invited us to come along with them, and it was so fun! I've never done that before," Shiro said that last part softly, happily. Then, he blinked and gazed at Keith, tilting his head innocently. "But what are you doing here?" he said, eyeing the awkwardly wrapped present with interest. Shiro had to have known it was for him, but it was just like Shiro to not voice any expectations lest his assumptions were wrong.

Keith held the present out to him in one jerky movement. "Your present."

If it were even possible, the skin around the sides of Shiro's eyes crinkled as his grin stretched as wide as it could, his eyes as bright as the stars on this ever-darkening night. It was hard to look away from Shiro's illumination, and Keith was beginning to feel even warmer beneath his puffy coat and too tight scarf.

"Really?" Shiro said softly as he gently took the present from Keith's outstretched hands. Shiro held the poorly wrapped present with such care, like he were cradling an injured kitten between his palms, and Keith felt his face flush.

"Open it," Keith said, and after one last awed look at Keith, Shiro did just that.

"Oh, Keith," Shiro said, his whisper sliding along the air delicately to Keith's ears as Shiro held up the sculpted bird between his hands, the wrapping paper now shoved up under his arm. Shiro ran his fingers along each side of the little wooden bird, his face soft as he breathed words of astonishment.

Keith felt warm as he watched Shiro, any anxiety he previously held on his journey over here having melted away at the look of wonder on Shiro's face. It really wasn't hard to please Shiro, so Keith didn't know why he'd been so nervous. Shiro probably would have looked like this even if Keith had ended up getting him that little plastic bird in the cage, but Keith wouldn't have been okay with that. He would never let Shiro settle for anything less than he deserved.

Still, Keith found himself asking softly, "Do you like it?"

Shiro tore his eyes away from the little green bird in his palms and breathed in disbelief, his breath leaving him in a visible fog of breath. "Like it? Keith, I love it. It's so beautiful. Did you make it yourself?"

"Uh, yeah. Well, I mean, my dad had made it last month. He does this kind of thing where he makes tiny sculptures, and then we paint them and set them in the house. He hadn't gotten around to this one yet, so my parents gave it to me so I could give it to you. I painted it all by myself though," he said proudly, trying to end on a triumphant note. He did everything by himself once his mom plucked it from his dad's collection, so he wanted Shiro to know.

It had taken Keith hours of intense care to get the coloring right. He and his dad had printed out images of little green parrotlets for Keith to learn from. The entire bird in Shiro's hand was coated in a soft green color, tiny stripes of red streaking through the tail feather like he'd seen in the pictures. The eyes had been the hardest because Keith was still learning how to perfect his circles, but he made them small enough to where if he had messed up, it wouldn't have been that noticeable.

Shiro said he loved birds, so he probably knew all about the different kinds and the different colors they could be. Keith was super proud of his first painted bird, but he just hoped he hadn't skimmed over any details that an expert like Shiro might notice.

By now, Shiro's family was just catching up, his brother and parents stopping behind Shiro to see what the two of them were doing. Keith could feel his own parents step up behind his back, and Keith felt a million times more anxious now that everyone was here and watching them.

"Okay, so I guess I'll see you later. After Christmas. We can play with our swords and light sabers again in your backyard," Keith said, hunching his shoulders up and attempting to turn around, but Shiro grabbed his arm up to stop him and said, "Wait!"

Keith paused on a half-step, and before he could fully turn back to Shiro, he found himself suddenly gathered up in the other boy's arms, crushed tightly to his jacket clad body.

"Thank you, Keith," Shiro said sincerely, his arms holding onto Keith like a huge teddy bear. Keith couldn't deny it felt nice being hugged, even if no one other than his parents had ever done it, so when Keith lifted his heavily covered arms to fit around Shiro's slightly bigger body as much as he could, he smiled to himself. "I love it so much."

Keith pried himself away from Shiro, but he chuckled at him, screwing his lips to the side as he noticed the shy smile still on Shiro's face. "I told you before—we're best friends, and that means we'll always have someone to share presents with during Christmas. And, birthdays. You missed my last one."

Shiro huffed, his eyes going innocently wide. "You didn't tell me it was your birthday until you came to school! I was already too late by then."

"Yeah, well, now you know for next year. And, I already remember your birthday. You told me on my birthday, and I thought, 'Wow, so he's kinda like two years old.'" Keith laughed.

"I am not! It doesn't work like that, I celebrate it every year on the last day of February," Shiro said very concernedly, like Keith might really forget and wait until his actual birthday came around another four years from now.

Keith only shook his head amusedly, hunching his shoulders against the chill in the air. "I'll remember," he said softly, not really in the mood to tease Shiro, not when he was freezing and just wanted to go home now that he'd given him present. Home to his warm house where his Christmas tree was blinking with soft, golden light, and hot chocolate was waiting for him in the kitchen. He could always tease Shiro when it wasn't Christmas.

Shiro's brother ran ahead to the door of their house, done with watching the gift exchange, and their father went ahead to open the door. Shiro's mother placed her hands on Shiro's shoulders and urged them onward toward the house, thanking Keith for the present.

With one last smile at each other, Keith and Shiro parted ways, both under the gentle hands of their mothers guiding them.

Later that night, when Keith was all tired out from dancing to Christmas tunes in the living room with his parents, and he'd had all the hot chocolate his stomach could handle, he laid across his bed on his stomach, face propped up on his closed fists as he admired his windowsill.

The little red translucent lion figure looked amazing basked in the moonlight's illumination, glowing almost as if it were trying to come to life. None of the other toys on his windowsill shone like the one Shiro had given him, and when Keith finally started to doze off for the night, he went off with a soft smile on his face and warm thoughts of his best friend.

two.

The best thing about living three houses down from the middle school was that Keith didn't need to drag his parents along whenever he wanted to attend after school events.

Well, wanted was a strong word. He never wanted to be at school outside of mandatory hours, but when your best friend was involved in so many different after school clubs, it's sort of inevitable that spending time there after school would become routine.

Today wasn't one of the usual evenings where Keith would sit outside on the bleachers beside the baseball field and snap shots with his camera of the different athletic groups scattered around the vast baseball field behind the school. That was part of his task because of his coveted spot on the yearbook club—the only club he'd been willing to join after Shiro's pestering for him to join a club—because he got to take a ton of pictures, and Keith loved taking pictures.

But it was winter now, so that meant no more after school clubs that involved outside activities, which meant he had no athletic groups to capture on camera. No, tonight was more special than most.

It was the night of the winter choral concert where the eighth-grade choir performed for all their parents here at school, showing off all the music they'd been studying and perfecting with their voices for months.

Keith wouldn't be caught dead up there with a good portion of his eighth-grade class on stage right now, singing their prepubescent voices out proudly to an auditorium full of parents filming this performance. It was kind of embarrassing to Keith just sitting here watching them, but there was a perfectly valid reason he was here.

Shiro stood in the top row of students hustled on the stands on stage, his steadily growing figure getting bigger each day. He was one of the tallest kids in class now, dwarfing Keith's stilted growth by an entire foot now. It was hard to miss him standing on the end, all suited up in his cummerbund and bow tie, as sleek as he ever was during these choir concerts.

This wasn't Keith's first time coming. In fact, Keith had made it a habit to attend all of Shiro's performances here at school because when Shiro had first joined chorus last year, he'd been a nervous wreck. Shiro wasn't one for the limelight, and just thinking about doing something as vulnerable as singing to a room of at least a hundred people had Shiro looking green in the face for days before he'd even signed up.

But Keith knew how much Shiro loved to sing because he always heard him mumbling under his breath to the soft music playing while they studied together in Shiro's room, Shiro's relaxed brows and content face something that didn't go unnoticed with Keith.

Shiro almost hadn't done it. When the signup sheets had been posted, Shiro had spent two days going by and staring at the list longingly, but he never did anything about it. So, the next time they'd passed by the signup sheet, Keith had yanked on Shiro's arm to stop them, and when Shiro realized that Keith was also looking at the form, he blanched.

"No, Keith, no no no no no. I can't—I can't sign up for that!" Shiro had said, but he'd finally stopped and leaned tersely against the board, staring wide eyed at Keith and trying hard to ignore the sheet by his head.

"You can. And you will. Come on, Shiro, I've seen you eyeballing this list for days now, I know you want to." Keith turned and flicked the end of the sheet with his finger. "As lame as chorus is, I know you'd be good at it."

Shiro had bitten his lip and finally gazed at the sign up sheet, honest hope in his eyes now. "You really think so?"

Keith had smacked his lips together like what Shiro had said was ridiculous. "You're good at everything. Plus, I've heard your singing, and it doesn't make me want to rinse my ears out with bleach, so you must be doing something right."

Shiro had chuckled, but it was tight, his apprehension still choking him. "I don't know, Keith… Maybe if you signed up, too?"

"Ha!" Keith had said, turning his back on the board to lean against it, one foot pulled up to rest against the wall. "You'd have to drag me in there by the feet, and even then I'd cut my own legs off just to get away."

Shiro sighed defeatedly, knowing he wouldn't be able to convince Keith otherwise.

"But what if they make me do a solo? It's one thing to sing on stage with all your classmates, it's another to sing up there alone. I really don't think I could handle that."

"They can't force you to do that. That's a form of bullying, and I will not stand for it."

Shiro had chuckled more freely at that, his eyes clearing and hand rubbing along his neck nervously. Keith knew he just needed a little push, and even though what he was about to say sounded about as appealing as signing up had just sounded, he figured he could push through this one for Shiro.

"Tell you what," Keith had said, and Shiro cast his eyes over to him. "I'll go to every one of your performances that you have if you decide to sign up. Joining is just too much for me, but if it'll make you feel better, I'll come see you sing every time so you don't have to go alone."

It was slow going, but relief had begun to take over Shiro's agitated state, the frown lines smoothing out, and before Keith could even pull a pen out from his pocket, Shiro was already swiping a pen from the side of his backpack and scribbling his name on the signup sheet.

Keith kept his promise. For the past year, Keith followed Shiro to all his performances, and while he wasn't ever enthralled by the performances of corny music, he'd always felt warm inside seeing the look of relief and happiness Shiro gave to him as he spotted him through the crowd. It made Keith feel really important, like his presence there really made a difference.

Every concert seemed to have a theme—Disney soundtracks, mainstream pop, 80s hits—and this one was no exception. A Winter Wonderland Spectacular was what Keith was submersed in as he leaned back in the comfy seat and admired the decorations in the auditorium. The lights were dimmed down enough to where it wasn't completely dark in the entire auditorium, but there was a comfortable glow hanging over everyone, a lighting Keith felt safe in, secure. The entire stage was what was really decorated with all of the fluffy cotton scattered around the floor of the stage, puffed up like little clouds flowing beneath them. Behind the choir students on stage sat a huge background that had been painted on with a dark night sky and glistening stars, something Keith himself had worked on with a couple of the other art students who weren't complete trash on paper.

The entire ambiance was comforting to Keith because Christmas was only two days away now, and it seemed like to him that with each year that he got older, the more Christmas seemed to lose just a bit of that magical quality he'd felt growing up. It wasn't anything physically changing; he still drank hot chocolate and helped his parents dress up the whole house with decorations. He still exchanged gifts with Shiro, and the snow still sprinkled down sometimes like magic. But it was something within Keith that was changing. Pieces of his enthusiasm chipping away as he got older and the experiences kept packing on, not all of them good, but all of them altering Keith's black and white view of the world.

Eighth grade was no walk in the park, and his grades had taken a stumble as he went into the year. He didn't know what the problem was, but as he got his first B and then his first C, his bright attitude toward school had slowly begun to deteriorate.

His parents were never mad at him for the drop in his grades, but they'd been worried. They constantly nagged him if everything was alright in his life, and he always insisted he was fine. Because he was fine. Eighth grade was just harder than he thought.

A dark and moody cloud had followed him around as he let the troubles of school takeover his mind, and maybe that was why he couldn't feel the Christmas spirit. He just wished he could go back to when Christmas was the only thing he had to worry about for the holidays.

Listening to Shiro and the others sing holiday songs while encased in the bright golden spotlights and the backdrop of a winter night behind them helped, though, and for the first time in a while, Keith could feel the warmth in his chest swirl around.

And Shiro looked so proud up there singing his heart out, his eyes as wide and attentive as ever, clearly the standout among a throng of kids who looked nervous as fuck to be under the stage's only spotlight. Shiro used to look like them at first, hesitant and unsure if he had done the right thing to sign up. But once he realized that Keith wasn't kidding about showing up to his performances, Shiro had quickly shed that apprehension and owned the stage with his overpowering presence.

Keith slid his hand inside of his jacket and felt the tall, thin present still nestled in the pocket, a soft sigh leaving him. It was getting harder to think up presents for the most unconventional boy he'd ever known, but Keith liked the challenge, he liked expanding past the edges of his creativity so he could pull the best present he could out and see the look of wonder he always managed to garner from Shiro every year.

When the concert was over and all the students were gleaming at the applause from the audience, Keith wasted no time in jumping from his seat to make it to the music room before Shiro could.

The music room was in the hallway behind the auditorium, and Keith had just made it into the room as the first students started to filter out of the back of the stage and into the hall.

He searched quickly for Shiro's backpack, finding it all the way in the corner of the room, and he settled himself into the chair the backpack was hanging on, a hand inside of his jacket to clutch at the present.

One by one, students filtered into the classroom, a few of them eyeing Keith with disdain, a few of them unsurprised to find him waiting for Shiro. Keith didn't hold any of their gazes, not in the mood to glare down anyone who was suspicious of Keith.

Of course Shiro had to be one of the last to head in, talking and laughing with someone beside him. As soon as he caught sight of Keith, though, his eyebrows shot up, and he headed straight for him.

"Keith, that was so amazing! Did you like it? I thought maybe our first winter themed concert would be something you would totally be into since we had a ton of Christmas songs in there," Shiro said, flopping down into the seat beside him and reaching for his backpack behind Keith's back.

Keith bit his lip to hold in the smile, nodding his head pleasantly. "You guys had me at 'It's a yum yummy world made for sweethearts," Keith mock sang, tossing his jazz hands out.

Shiro laughed and stopped the fussing with his backpack on his lap to drop his hands over it. "Take a walk with your favorite girl."

"It's a sugar date—"

"What if spring is late? In winter it's a marshmallow world."

Keith and Shiro burst into giggles as the last of the other students gathered their backpacks and coats and headed out, leaving just the two of them in this half-lit room, laughing at theirselves.

"I don't know why you never joined chorus. You're a good singer," Shiro said as he went back to sifting through his backpack. Keith snorted.

"My voice isn't even deep enough for any of the guy parts. I'd be a soprano with the girls."

"You would not! You'd be a great tenor."

"Says the deepest baritone in school."

Shiro huffed amusedly, eyes flickering briefly toward Keith. "Okay, okay. Are we here to make fun of my deep voice, or do we have a mission to complete here?"

Keith finally pulled out the present safely hidden away in his jacket just as Shiro brought a clumpy present out of his backpack.

"Your voice isn't that deep," Keith said quietly, biting down on his smile.

Shiro shrugged and tossed his backpack into the empty seat beside him before he turned his full attention on Keith, present clasped between his hands on his lap. "But it's like you said: deepest baritone in the school."

"Only until everyone else hits puberty, then you'll go back to being your usual high self among the guys." Keith slid his fingers along the flat edge of his present to Shiro, his eyes wandering warily to Shiro's gift for Keith. Keith smirked. "Never thought I'd see the day when Takashi Shirogane would wrap a present as clumpy as that one. What happened to the dreams of becoming a present wrapper?"

Keith chuckled, but Shiro's cheeks turned pink, and even that was obvious to see through the minimal lighting they had in this room.

"It's actually not easy wrapping presents that aren't straight and box like. And anyway I just barely finished them this morning before school, so cut me some slack, will ya?"

"I'm only teasing. Come on, here. I've been holding onto this for too long," Keith said, and they switched presents with each other, the both of them wasting no time in tearing off the shoddy wrapping job they both did.

As soon as Keith recognized what the red, fuzzy objects in his hands were, he had to stifle a giggle. It came out anyway though, sounding choked in his effort to suppress it.

"Really, Shiro?" he said, flattening the beanie on one of his thighs and the matching pair of fingerless gloves on his other. Keith was pretty sure he'd gotten something similar to this from his grandma last year.

"What?" Shiro said, still in the middle of carefully unwrapping his own present. "It's cold outside, Keith! The beginning of winter, and you only ever come to school in that tiny jacket," he said, reaching over to tug on it. "It can't be keeping you warm."

Keith chuckled as he slid the beanie onto his head, arranging his bangs so they were out of his eyes. He slid the fingerless gloves on, appreciating the fact that Shiro knew Keith was fond of the aesthetic despite knowing his fingertips were going to be freezing in the cold. Keith would always choose the aesthetic over the actual warmth any day.

"Okay, Mom," Keith said, admiring his gloves. They didn't look half bad on his hands. And they fit smoothly, not too tight, not too big, something he'd be able to wear forever basically.

"Call me whatever you like. As long as you're wearing those to keep you warm, then I don't care; my job is done," Shiro said cheerfully, and he finally pulled the last of the wrapping paper off of his present.

Keith was anxious as Shiro flipped the picture around to the front. As much as Keith knew Shiro would love it, there were still those lingering doubts he could never fully shed. What if he thought it was weird? What if he didn't like the coloring?

"Keith," Shiro said reverently, gently sliding a finger along the image of himself there in a black and white background, a tiny red bird perched on his knee. It was a picture Keith had taken one evening after school when he was still gathering pictures for the yearbook. Shiro had wandered away from the rest of the baseball players and had tossed himself onto the ground on his back, arms splayed out over his head, and chest rising and falling heavily with exertion. Keith had been about to ditch the photos and head over to him, but when he was halfway to him, he noticed a little red bird swoosh down from the tree and land right on Shiro's knee which had been pulled up.

Keith had stopped immediately, not wanting to scare the bird off, and so he knelt down in the itchy grass on one knee to watch as Shiro slowly picked himself up, leaning back on his hands to watch the incredible display happening on his knee.

Keith had never seen anything like it. A wild animal flocking to a human as if it were completely normal. It made sense that that person would be Shiro. Shiro was the kindest person Keith had ever known, the kind of person who would run their self into the ground just to help a friend. The kind of person who attracted wild animals to them like Snow White, apparently.

The scene had been so soft, so when Shiro had smiled at the bird and began talking quietly to it, Keith had snapped a dozen pictures of the moment, a secret wish stirring in his heart of wanting to make that scene immortal.

He hadn't meant to show Shiro these pictures, but it somehow felt wrong to keep them a secret. And he was running out of ideas of what cool homemade thing he could get Shiro this year, so after playing with the photos and desaturating the background so that Shiro and the bird were the only spots of color, he slapped the finished picture into a picture frame and wrapped it up.

Keith's heart was beating a thousand times over as he waited for Shiro to look up. He hadn't moved from staring down at the image, his finger now running over the bird in wonder. Keith was kind of feeling ridiculous now. He might have been too over the top. Shiro's gift was practical, made from the heart and from concern over Keith's well being. And Keith had only gotten him a picture he'd taken one evening.

Keith started to say, "It might not—"

"I had no idea you were there," Shiro said gently, finally gazing up at Keith from beneath his dark lashes, his eyes imploring of Keith. He gazed back at the picture and sat back a little, holding the framed photo between both hands. "I remember this day. It was so incredible, Keith. I felt so lucky that that little cardinal had felt comfortable enough to fly down on my body and just sit there, completely at ease. That kind of thing just doesn't happen, you know? And when she finally flew away back into the tree, I remember feeling sad that it'd probably never happen again. I wished I could remember it forever."

Shiro was staring at the photo as he talked into the air, his words sliding over Keith's heart with its gentle tone. It melted away every anxiety that had been clawing in his brain. Shiro never failed to ease the conflict in Keith.

Keith swallowed and picked lightly at the edges of his gloves, basking in the Christmas glow exchanging gifts with Shiro always managed to bring out. Maybe the Christmas spirit was getting harder to find with each passing year, but with Shiro, he knew it would never be gone completely.

"Well, now you can. Remember it, I mean. Merry Christmas, Shiro."

Shiro flicked his eyes to Keith, that soft smile pulling his lips up in that adorable way that made him seem much younger than his fourteen years.

"Merry Christmas, Keith. Thank you."

Keith smiled back at him, and eased himself loose, knowing the obligatory hug Shiro was so fond of was coming. And it did. Shiro pulled Keith to him and wrapped his tinier frame up in his arms, Keith's face smooshed against Shiro's bow tie at his neck. He could only smile and wrap his arms around his waist.

When they pulled apart, they could both hear as Shiro's name was being called from out in the hall, the sound of his mother's voice causing Shiro to laugh and call out to her.

"Coming, Mom!" He turned to Keith and stood up, sliding his arms into his poofy jacket and sliding his backpack onto both shoulders before he clutched the picture to his chest protectively. "You walking home with us?"

"Yeah," Keith said as he hopped to his feet. He eyed the classroom with interest, loving the dark feel to it all. "School is so weird at night. It almost feels dangerous," he said, popping his eyes wide at Shiro teasingly.

Shiro glanced around warily, leading the way to the door. "I don't like it. It feels like we're doing something we're not supposed to."

"But that's the fun part! Who wouldn't want to explore the school when all the teachers aren't around? No one to yell at us for running or tell us we can't go into the teacher's lounge. I bet they have a chocolate fountain in there. That's just what I heard," Keith said, shrugging.

Shiro only laughed and knocked him with his shoulder. "And this is why you were suspended last year for starting that huge stampede out of the cafeteria where that sixth grader Lance McClain tripped and twisted his ankle."

"Who the hell is Lance? I didn't tell everyone to follow me; I shouldn't have been blamed."

"You ran out of there screaming, 'Killer clown in the kitchen!' Everyone got so scared when the lunch lady came out of there to surprise everyone in her clown costume for Halloween. I felt so bad for her."

Keith snorted as they rounded out of the classroom. "I didn't. Who the hell thinks it's okay to be a clown for Halloween? So many poor souls were triggered that day."

"Yeah, because you called her a killer."

Shiro's parents were standing in the middle of the hall conversing with each other while Shiro's brother, Ryou, was doing airplane motions with his entire upper body beside them.

"I can't wait to get home and hang up this picture, Keith. You have no idea how much I love it," Shiro said, gazing fondly back down at the picture in his hands.

Keith felt his heart glow and his mind clear at the praise. All that worrying for nothing.

"And these gloves are awesome, Shiro. I know you think the fingerless thing is dumb, but you still made them that way. It's pretty cool, if you ask me."

Keith stretched his hands out in front of him, flipping his hands back and forth to admire the handiwork. Shiro really knew how to knit a mean hat and glove set.

Shiro was blushing again when he turned to him, and Keith had to fight against his rising smile. It was always too easy to rile him up.

Shiro cleared his throat and grabbed up one of Keith's gloved hands in his, jerking them to a stop merely feet away from his parents. He flipped Keith's hand palm side up as he pointed to something small and black near the cuff of the glove.

"You probably didn't notice, but I weaved your initials into them—on the left side, left side only. The hat, too. It's on the inside, but it's still there."

Sure enough, when Keith leaned his head down closer to inspect, a tiny little double showing of the letter k was there, lowercase and slanted, a pretty script.

"Cool," Keith breathed, and he didn't know why his heart fluttered at the sight of his initials. It was just his initials, nothing special about it. But he couldn't stop smiling at it anyway.

He gazed up at Shiro, noting the blush lingering on his cheeks and the vulnerability in his eyes, and he said, "You know, I haven't really been in the Christmas spirit lately. Too much going through my head, you know? But, right now, I can honestly say that it's really starting to feel like Christmas."

Shiro held his gaze for a moment before humor crept in, taking over his face entirely as it usually did. "That was so unbelievable corny. Who are you, and what have you done with my Keith?"

My Keith.

Keith blinked against the words, momentarily forgetting himself, but he recovered quickly. He was fast like that.

"Corny? Oh, and I wonder where I get that from," Keith said, chuckling as he pushed Shiro away. His cheeks were flaming, but he started walking and following Shiro's family, who had already started their journey home and was at the far end of the hall now.

Shiro laughed heartily as he ran to catch up with Keith, and when they were side by side again, Keith said, "My parents always told me to mind the company I keep because your friends define you; they can influence you, my mom said. And what do you know, she was right."

"Oh, Keith. You know you love how corny I am. It keeps you humble." Keith pffted, and Shiro went on, looping his arm through Keith's. "I feel the same, you know. I've been so busy trying to keep up with schoolwork that I forgot to enjoy myself. To just relax and remember that it's Christmas! But I can feel it now," he said, and Keith gazed up at him and caught his bright and honest eyes. "I can feel that Christmas magic you always talk about."

Yeah, and Keith could feel it, too.

three.

It was pretty much well known that Keith Kogane was not the dancing type. He hated it, and anyone who knew him knew that social gatherings like homecoming and dances were a huge fucking no in his book.

Well, everyone knew this except his mother.

"Keith, you're only eighteen once, and I'm not gonna have you waste it away in your room! Go to the dance, have fun, sneak in some of that spiked punch and don't drive home," she'd said when she'd caught wind of the winter formal coming up.

Keith had made it a point to rip up all the papers that were sent home to remind everyone about the dance, but unfortunately, he was powerless to stop the phone call that had gone out while he was driving home, blissfully ignorant with Pidge in the passenger seat while his mom was being fed all the pertinent information about the winter formal.

Needless to say, when he'd gotten home that afternoon, his mom had been waiting for him, and arguing with her was a lose situation for Keith always, so after she won the argument, they had spent the next week looking at tuxedos to buy him and teaching him a little bit about dance.

He'd been annoyed about the whole thing at first, but standing in the living room and dancing with his mom to cheesy music while his dad encouraged them on from the couch actually wasn't the worst. It always made Keith laugh to see how happy his dad was to watch them dance around the living room at Christmastime like old times.

And Keith missed it, too. He missed just goofing off with his parents and drinking hot chocolate and making snow angels out in the yard. But that all felt like kid stuff now. He still decorated the house with them, practically dragging his dad along to the tree farm to go and pick out a real tree on the first of December. He still decorated the stair rail with garland and placed the star on top of the tree like always. So not all things had changed.

A few things had, though. It wasn't really anyone's fault when a bit of distance had been created between him and Shiro these past two years of high school. Junior and senior years were the most hectic he'd always heard, and this incredible space between them where it had once not been was foreign to Keith. He didn't know how to handle watching his best friend slowly branch out and away from Keith's solitary attitude and toward the throng of students welcoming him with open arms.

Shiro was the school's golden boy, nicest guy you'll ever meet and the kid who could throw a ball nearly 50 yards. Everyone loved him, and really, Keith shouldn't have been surprised. He'd always known Shiro was special and was always going to do great things, but Keith kind of thought things wouldn't change between them. How he was so naïve.

They hadn't talked about exchanging presents this year, but it felt wrong not to get him anything. Besides, they weren't that disconnected. They still talked and laughed when they saw each other, it just wasn't anywhere near as much as it used to be.

Shiro probably wouldn't forget about the exchange, but even if he did, Keith knew he would forgive him instantly. Shiro had a lot on his plate, and with all the new friends he'd acquired, who's to say he didn't have an entire list of people to get presents for?

Keith sighed as he stared up at the ceiling from his stiff position on the bed. Matt and Pidge should've been there any minute to drag his corpse off to the winter formal, and he was just full of nervous energy. He didn't want to go, and it was more than just his subpar dancing skills that made him itch to think about the dance.

Keith swallowed and tried to ignore it, awkwardly pulling himself up into a sitting position on the bed. This tuxedo was stifling, and he was afraid to move a certain way in case any part of it came out of place.

The sound of car horns blaring outside of his house jerked his head to the window, and with one wistful look at the lone 3D lion puzzle that still stood on the windowsill overlooking the street, Keith stood up, checked his chest pocket for the gift he hadn't wrapped this year, and headed downstairs.

Pidge was already waiting downstairs when he reached the ground level, and after the obligatory pre-dance photo his parents forced on them, Keith hurriedly urged Pidge out of the house before his mom could start talking about anything embarrassing.

"Your parents seem so cool, why would they say anything to embarrass you?" Pidge said as she hopped in the passenger seat, Keith settling in the back and loosening the bow tie at his neck. He'd barely left his house, and he was already ready for the night to be over with.

"Trust me, you don't want to stick around long enough to realize I'm not lying. Just be glad you got out of there before they tried to show you those awful pictures of my questionable dress style in 1st grade," Keith said, shivering lightly in disgust. He'll never get over the way he looked so proud wearing those wide legged jeans. "That's gotta be illegal letting your kid pick out their own clothes?"

Matt greeted Keith with two fingers up and drove out onto the street. It was snowing once again, soft sheets of snowflakes raining down along the trees and houses they passed, and Keith had the odd thought that December 23rd was a special day. Most years, that was when Shiro and Keith exchanged gifts, and almost always on that day, it would begin to snow, ready to layer the entire town in a quiet plush of white to greet everyone for Christmas Eve.

Of course the dance had to be held on the 23rd so Keith and Shiro could keep true to their tradition, even if only one of them remembered.

"Ha! You made a huge mistake by telling me that because now I'm going to make it my personal mission to suck up to your parents until the great images of the past are revealed."

Keith blinked against the car window, realizing the truth of her words. "Pidge, I forbid you, forbid you, from asking my parents anything. Ever. For the rest of our lives."

Matt laughed from up front, tossing his eyes to Keith through the rear-view mirror. "You practically set yourself up for that one. You must have really wanted her to find out if you willingly handed over the information that such images existed in the first place. She never would have known otherwise."

Keith sputtered. "Wha— I didn't even—"

"I don't need your parents to find out all the embarrassing details of your life, Keith," Pidge said, leaning around in her seat to smile at Keith amusedly. "You're forgetting I have another source."

Keith studied her warily, taking in her wide eyes beneath her glasses and the way she was biting her lip to keep her smile from getting too smug. Then, he blinked.

"No," Keith said, already shaking his head vehemently. "Nope, Shiro won't give up anything. Unlike you, he's loyal, and he'll keep my secrets to the grave. Back me up on that, Matt."

Matt snorted and shrugged at Pidge. "It's true. Shiro won't be betraying anyone for your little games, Katie."

Pidge glared at the side of her brother's head before she turned her anger on Keith, who only shot her a told you so look. Pidge smashed her lips together tightly before she stuck her tongue out at Keith and flipped around to face the front again.

"Mark my words, I will not leave this earth without getting my hands on that photo of Fetus Keith," Pidge said, and Keith and Matt laughed. He had no doubt that she wouldn't follow through on her promise.

The dance was everything Keith knew it was going to be. Hot, stiff, full of cringey Christmas music that wasn't even the good classics, but modern pop covers of his favorites. It was like his own personal hell had manifested itself before his very eyes as Keith and Pidge sat at a table in the corner, nestled away from the stuffy crowd in the middle of the gymnasium dancing all around each other.

If there was one thing he was at least a little excited about, it was the decorations. You couldn't have a winter formal without the theme being the obvious winter, and the gym radiated a winter wonderland. Hundreds of little strings of stars and snowflakes hung down from the ceiling, the light dimming down from above reflecting warmly off of the stars' translucent edges. On the ground along the edges of the gym sat fluffy cotton, not unlike the stage during Shiro's winter concert back in middle school. At the front of the double doors leading into the gym sat huge figurines of a snowman and some reindeer, a nice place to stop and take a picture if one were so inclined.

Keith had eyed the giant figures when he, Pidge, and Matt had first stridden into the place, but he couldn't bring himself to ask Pidge to snap a picture with them. She'd probably just laugh and never let him live it down, anyway.

There wasn't glitter anywhere, but no matter where he looked he swore everything sparkled, the light glinting off of everyone's palette colored dress outfits, shades of blue and white and black shining like fresh snow in the night.

But no place in the entire gymnasium shone as prettily as the scene in the middle of the dance floor where Shiro stood, hand in hand with Adam, swaying lightly to the sickeningly slow love song playing through the speakers. It almost felt like the two of them were under a spotlight for all the space everyone was giving them, all their greedy eyes falling on Shiro and Adam as if they were the first dance at homecoming.

Keith swallowed as he watched Adam pick his head up off of Shiro's chest and mumble something to him, words too low and intimate for Keith to even make out lip reading, but whatever it was had made Shiro smile and lean down to capture his lips softly in the gentlest of kisses.

Keith cut his eyes away.

Pidge was lounged peacefully in the chair beside him, her nose stuck in her phone as she jabbed against the screen of her phone intensely. He was about to ask what she could possibly be playing while in the middle of a dance they were supposed to be attending together, when she spat out, "Gah! Stupid Jedi. I knew I should have just gone with Yoda, he's got the better mental skills."

Keith chuckled and leaned over slightly enough to catch sight of the screen where all three of her characters had been wiped out. "Why are you playing that right now, aren't we supposed to be dancing or something?"

Pidge squinted at Keith as she clicked her phone off and slid it into her pants pocket. With her black tuxedo combo, she was rivaling Keith in the looks department tonight, easily beating out his dumb light blue tux his mother had said went great with his eyes.

"Uhhh, did you want to dance? Because we only came as friends, you're not under any obligation to whisk me around the room like some swooning maiden. If I wanted to do that, I would have accepted Hunk's invite last month when he ambushed me in the cafeteria."

Keith shrugged, leaning an arm on the table where their punch sat, not spiked with alcohol because this wasn't the eighties like his mom had thought. "My mom's been teaching me how to dance all week, and I thought I might put some of that suffering to use if you wanted a dance out of tonight." Then, Keith eyed her curiously, a small smirk pulling his lips up. "Why did you turn him down? He seems like an okay guy."

Pidge widened her eyes at Keith, a tiny frown line settling on her lips. "Because! I don't even like Hunk like that, he's just a really cool friend, all right? Why do we have to ruin that by going to the dance together? No, no, I'd rather stick to our time trying to get our robots to fight each other to the death than make all of that awkward by making him my date tonight. Nope."

Keith breathed a laugh, nodding his head complacently. "Whatever you say, Pidge. But trust me when I say you wouldn't have ruined anything by just saying yes. You guys even could have gone as friends, like we did."

"It's not that simple. Hunk would have had me out there on the dance floor already, the both of us just a tangle of awkward limbs trying to force interaction, whereas you, my kind and loyal best friend, are still sitting here moping alongside me. So, I think I did okay for myself."

"I am not moping."

"You totally are! And I don't blame you. Shiro is looking super dashing in that snow colored tux. It's a crime to look that good in high school, I think."

Keith frowned at her, ignoring the urge to follow her gaze to the middle of the dance floor. "Pidge," he said lowly, "I am not moping over Shiro."

"Yeah, and tomorrow isn't the start of your favorite holiday. Oh, wait, yeah, it is. And yeah, you are. Moping, that is. Come ooon, Keith, can we just leave? I love being at this stupid dance just about as much as you do, and can't we just go get a burger and some fries to share? And we can even stop and pick up some of those candy ropes your sweet tooth is so fond of. You're still spending the night, right? Because we're definitely gonna need some sugar anyway if I'm gonna keep you up long enough to show you that new video game I got."

Keith smacked his lips at her teasing, but he wasn't mad. Her idea did sound a thousand times better than sitting here, and yes, moping.

He drank the last of his bland punch before smacking the cup onto the table hard, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He side-eyed Pidge. "Isn't that a single player campaign you got?"

Pidge huffed a nervous laugh, her smiling face not even trying to hide the guilt. "You can raid my personal snack drawer, too?"

Keith groaned, tilting his head back, the sound vibrating out of his throat like torture. Then he laughed. That was just Pidge.

"Okay, let's go. This music is shit anyway. I thought I was going to have to go up there on that stage and accidentally on purpose knock the DJ stand over."

Pidge was already standing and gathering her jacket and scarf off of the chair, sliding her limbs easily into the oversized coat. "You would have been doing everyone a favor. I can wait while you go and do that. Seriously, everyone will be praising you as we waltz our way out of the door like heroes."

Keith followed her up, but he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering toward the crowd, seeking out that familiar face. Shiro was still dancing with Adam, but Keith was able to see Shiro's face clearly now that their dancing had angled Shiro in his direction. They locked eyes for the first time that night, and Keith's heart just about leapt out of his chest at the brightened look in Shiro's eyes.

"You go on ahead and find Matt. I'll meet you guys at the car," Keith said, still staring at Shiro as he subtly nodded his head toward the exit. Shiro gave him a quick smile before he nodded, and Keith turned back to Pidge. "I just have to talk to Shiro for a sec."

"Ah, I was wondering if you two were still doing your little annual gift exchange. Hmm. I'm a little surprised."

"Pidge," Keith said warningly, but she was already laughing as she walked away, tossing a hand up as she walked off in search of Matt.

Keith took a second to breathe in deeply, counting to three in his head, and then letting it out. Then he headed outside.

The cold air blasted against his face bitterly, and he huddled against himself, cursing himself for loving the aesthetic. He hadn't brought a coat with him tonight because none of his jackets could have fit over his tux anyway without clinging to his suit in the most awkward way, so the only thing he had for protection were the red hat and gloves Shiro had made for him back in middle school. Keith wore them everywhere in the winter, never caring how the red clashed with some of the outfits he wore.

Keith leaned against the railing overlooking the parking lot, tilting his head up toward the sky and letting the snow wash down over him. It was so incredibly mind-numbing to give his senses over to the wild, to let nature take him in and make him feel in a way nothing else ever could. He loved the cold, and he loved the biting chill it gave him and the reminder of younger days spent playing in the snow, the only concern then being how wide he had to make his snowman at the base to make the rest of it work.

If he just drew energy from those memories, he'd be able to conjure up a little more of that Christmas thrill he loved so much, that was always growing just a little smaller each year.

As he reached into his breast pocket and slipped out the silver locket from its depths, his heart ignited with sparks; like muscle memory, his body remembering the annual tradition even if his mind had tried to block it out for a while.

It had never crossed his mind not to find Shiro a gift this year, but he'd still tried not thinking about it. What if Shiro had been too busy to remember? Keith didn't think his heart would be able to handle it if he had.

Footsteps racing toward him caught his attention, and he lowered his hand, tightening his fist over the unwrapped gift pressing into his palm.

"Keith," Shiro said cheerily as he slowed to a stop, panting slightly from his jog out of the warmth of the gym and into the bruising cold.

Keith was glad it was fucking cold because he could use that as an excuse for the sudden heat in his cheeks, the sight of Shiro up close and bright almost too much for him to handle. His suit was fitted against his bulkier body nicely, tightening in all the right places—his biceps, his chest, his waist. He looked like he just hopped out of a magazine for a winter fashion collection. And those damn eyes that never seemed to dim held him all together, the embodiment of effortless beauty.

Keith sighed.

Shiro frowned as he watched Keith shiver, his lips trembling lightly and his shoulders hunched. "Keith," he said, tone dripping with resignation. "How many times do you have to catch a cold before you realize the 'aesthetic' is so not worth the trouble?" Shiro said, dropping air quotes with his fingers around the word.

Keith breathed out a shaky laugh, the cold air finding its way into his throat as he opened his mouth to speak.

"As many times as it takes for you to realize that the aesthetic is number one to me. Besides, I've still got my head and hands covered, and you were the one who insisted that the head, hands, and feet were the most important body parts to keep covered."

Keith very pointedly held his gloved hands out, pointed at his beanie wearing head, and then down to his shoes, eyebrows raised the entire time, making his point.

Shiro smiled fondly as his gaze lingered on the beanie on Keith's messy hair. His mom had helped him to make his hair look nice, but as soon as he'd gotten in Matt's car, he'd shoved the beanie on anyway.

"I'm glad you still wear them. Probably one of the better presents I've ever given you. I'm a little surprised it's lasted this long to be honest; you go through clothes so quickly that I never have time to figure out if you're just outgrowing them or you're somehow rendering them useless before you're on to the next thing."

Keith kicked the ground with the toe of his shoe, watching his foot twirl on its top. "I get banged up a lot when I skate. I'd keep wearing the same ripped up jeans and jackets with holes in the elbows if I could, but my mom goes through and tosses them out, buys me new ones, so… But I never hit my head or else this beanie would be torn to shreds by the asphalt already. Never wear these," Keith said, wiggling his fingers outward, "or else they'd also be asphalt food."

Keith realized this one time when he'd done a flip off the railing and fell against the street, his hands skidding painfully against the road. A tiny little hole had formed at the heel of his palm, but his mom had been able to fix it with a little needle and thread. He'd never admit just how much he had panicked over the incident, his mind jumbling at the thought that he'd ruined Shiro's present to him, his favorite pair of gloves.

After that, he'd bought a new pair just for skating, made with rougher material to keep the tears to a minimum.

Shiro hummed to himself as he slipped his bare hands into his pants pockets, his shoulders rising against the chill he was probably only just now feeling. Keith didn't see a gift on him anywhere; no bulging spots in his suit where it could be hidden. Knowing Shiro, he would have gotten Keith something big and flashy, impeccable wrapping like always. But it didn't look like he had anything for him today.

Keith had been expecting this and preparing himself, but he must have not have done a good job because he could feel the disappoint flow through his veins before he could stop it. Before Shiro could notice though, Keith cleared his throat and hesitantly held his closed fist out, eyes focused solely on the silver locket dangling from between his fingers now.

"Merry Christmas, Shiro," he rushed out ineloquently, and he cringed against how loud he sounded in the quiet space of the sidewalk, his harsh voice slashing through the air like a knife.

He didn't watch as Shiro was slow to move, eventually reaching up to gently unclasp the necklace from between his gloved hands. He waited until he was sure Shiro's attention was on the necklace before he dared a peek up at him through his bangs. Shiro had already opened the locket, and he heard Shiro gasp softly as he recognized the figures of his grandparents smiling back at him.

Keith's tongue was dry in his mouth, a factor from standing outside in below 40 weather and from the stress Shiro was unintentionally pulling from the depths of him as he marveled at the locket, having yet to say a word.

Keith couldn't sit in silence, not without it eating at his mind painfully. "I know we didn't exactly talk about the exchange this year, but I... I couldn't not do something, you know? A-And I'm sorry it's not wrapped, it's just … you were right; trying to wrap small and wobbly presents is actually hell."

The air whipped even harder around the two of them, snow hitting and melting simultaneously on Keith's cheeks as he swallowed nervously, welcoming the cold that burned and healed all the same.

Keith said, "It's fine if you didn't remember. I know you're so busy all the time, and we haven't really had any time to talk, but..." He didn't know what to say. Shiro still hadn't said a word, and he wasn't even sure if he was listening. Keith was burning up from the inside so hard that he thought Shiro might have been right; he might just be catching another cold.

Keith started as the sound of laughter trailed a little ways down the sidewalk, and he could just make out Pidge and Matt racing down the stairs at the end of the sidewalk, Pidge hitting the pavement first and knocking her brother aside as she ran up against their car, victorious.

Keith breathed out steadily, in through his nose and out through his mouth, and Shiro was taking too long. He was staring at the necklace, and he hadn't said a word, and Pidge was waiting for Keith now, and—

And Shiro was sniffling, his hand rising to wipe at his cheek that was still turned down, and on the next shuddering breath, Keith could hear it. Shiro was crying.

Keith pressed his lips together for a second before he reached a hand out to grasp Shiro's shoulder. "Shiro?" he said gently, the winds around them calming so Keith didn't have to talk louder than a whisper to be heard.

Shiro sniffed again and huffed as he finally caught Keith's eyes. Shiro's were shining with tears unspilled, but he was smiling. There was warmth in his gaze as he took Keith in, and it immediately encompassed Keith's freezing insides.

"Keith..." Shiro said, his hand tightening around the locket. "You always manage to upstage me."

Keith shook his head, the movement jerky in the cold. "What are you— What do you mean?"

Shiro gazed back down at the locket, smoothing his index finger over the image of his grandfather plastered on the one side. Shiro gulped before explaining himself. "Every time we do this, you always end up getting me the better present, the more meaningful one." He gazed back at Keith apologetically as he wiped away the stray tears that were beginning to dry on his cheeks. "I always end up getting you something meaningless, something easy, and you always manage to move me. Here," he said, pressing a hand to his heart. "Like how Christmas should be."

Keith blinked against the snow droplets, trying to breath though it was suddenly hard to do so. "I always love what you give me. It's always perfect somehow, like you managed to steal my wishlist to Santa," he said, chuckling once.

Shiro cracked a smile at that, stealing Keith's breath for the moment, and it was like everything bad in his head fell away at that. He didn't care if Shiro hadn't gotten him a stupid present, and he didn't care about the distance that had been plaguing them lately. He didn't care that he was freezing his ass off out here and that Pidge was probably cursing him out to Matt right now. He didn't even care that Shiro had come here with someone else. None of it mattered when Shiro was right here in front of him now, chasing away his bad thoughts with just that dazzling soft smile of his.

Christmas had struck Keith's heart yet again.

"I love it, Keith," Shiro said quietly, gulping as he closed the locket and clasped it around his neck. It looked good on him, the silver shine mashing nicely with the white tux, just like Keith knew it would. "Thank you so much."

Keith shrugged, cheeks heating up under the praise. "I know how much you miss your grandparents. I had a few pictures of them still on my laptop from a couple summers ago, so it was pretty easy to find some to put in the locket. I just thought you'd want them close or something."

Shiro hummed as he toyed with the locket below his throat, eyes distant with memories. Then, he blinked and smiled sheepishly at Keith. "My gift feels pretty dumb in comparison."

"You got me a gift?" Keith said, and he hadn't meant to sound so surprised.

Shiro looked caught off guard at Keith's words. "Yes?" he said, dragging the word out like a question. "Wait, you didn't think I forgot, did you?"

Keith opened his mouth to lie, but his throat wouldn't let him, choking the words, keeping them stuck in his throat. Shiro's eyes widened in mock horror.

"Keith! Why would you think that? When have I ever given you the idea that I would bail on our annual tradition? We've been doing it for 9 years now," Shiro said, and Keith couldn't help but feel guilty now. Why had he had that idea?

"It's not…" Keith said, the words there in his head, but unable to be articulated. "You didn't… I mean, we just didn't talk about it, and I've hardly seen you lately. You're always so busy."

God, he sounded so pathetic, like he was whining about feeling neglected or something. Keith and Shiro were eighteen-years-old; they were in their last year of high school and would be going off to college come next autumn. This distance would have eventually come around at some point.

Keith tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, but he couldn't. It was stuck there, so he turned toward the parking lot and blinked rapidly to get away from the embarrassed feeling crawling through him.

When he felt Shiro's hand on his shoulder he closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of warmth spreading throughout the spot.

"Keith… I miss you, too."

Keith jerked his eyes open and turned back enough to see Shiro gazing sadly at him, his eyebrows drawn down over his bright eyes. Keith's mouth opened, no idea what he was going to say, but Shiro went on.

"It's my fault. When I joined the football team last year, I got super busy. I got roped into jock life, and I didn't know that when I signed up to toss a ball around that I also signed up for the prep life, the one where I'm sort of expected to attend all the dances and show up to all the sports events and help volunteer for all the school drives we host. Maybe if I'd known that I wouldn't have any time outside of it all to just spend time with my real friends, with you… I don't know. I just wish things could be easy again, like third grade."

Shiro chuckled, and Keith smiled, remembering the time they met; Keith playing at being a hero and saving Shiro from playground bullies. It felt like a lifetime ago, and now things seemed reversed. Like Shiro was the one saving Keith—only from himself this time.

His logic felt so flawed now that Shiro had laid it all out. Shiro hadn't forgotten about their tradition; he hadn't forgotten Keith, and Keith realized that he'd been his own worst enemy in thinking that Shiro had moved on without him. The Shiro he'd met on the playground that day would never do him dirty like that, and he was still the same Shiro.

Keith should have had more faith.

"I'm sorry, Shiro. I knew you wouldn't forget, but…" Keith didn't want to say it out loud, how he felt like he betrayed his best friend.

"Hey," Shiro said, and when Keith only sighed, Shiro knocked his chin up with the side of his fingers, and Keith's chest warmed at the half smile there on Shiro's face. "Want to come see your present, or what?

Keith smiled genuinely, breathing out an amused, "Yeah," before he followed Shiro down to the parking lot and to his car.

Running along the pavement, and then the asphalt, got the blood pumping through his veins, lighting him with renewed energy as he followed Shiro to the trunk of his car. Keith caught sight of Pidge on his way around the cars and laughed quietly to himself at the exulted look she shot him through the glass window.

"It's kind of big, and I'm sorry about that. I was hoping to catch you at your house tomorrow to drop it off, but," Shiro said, unlocking the trunk. "Wait, did you drive here?"

"Uh, no. I came with Pidge and Matt. They're over there waiting for me in the car."

"They are?" Shiro squeaked, gazing around for the siblings. He groaned when he found them, smacking a hand to his forehead. "Why didn't you say anything? I've kept you out here for so long."

"It's fine, Shiro," Keith chuckled "They have the heat anyway; they'll be okay."

"Still," Shiro said as he dug around in the trunk. He grabbed a hold of a huge box that was the length of Shiro's entire torso and rested it on the edge of the trunk. It was wrapped up with golden wrapping paper, a pretty red bow on top. So Shiro.

"Merry Christmas, Keith," Shiro said proudly.

Keith's eyes traveled excitedly between Shiro and the gift for a moment before he carefully pulled the bow aside to tear into it. He knocked all the wrapping paper aside into the trunk, and as he caught sight of the image on the side of the box, he gasped.

"Shiro," he said breathlessly, his mouth hanging open as he pulled the box further into his hands and out of Shiro's light grasp, admiring the telescope he'd been wanting for years now. "You got me the Orion StarBlast 1000? But—but this is like—"

"Six hundred dollars? Yeah, I know. Which is why I wasn't able to get it until this year when I just finally saved up enough to buy it."

Keith couldn't stop gaping in awe at the telescope. For being a couple years old, it was still a pretty sweet piece of tech that had the ability to seek out constellations with its fully automated alignment just from inputting coordinates into the telescope. It was programmed with an entire database of thousands of celestial beings for Keith to explore, and it had immediately captured his heart when he'd first seen it in a magazine a couple years ago. Keith didn't even think his own parents ever bought him a gift so expensive, aside from the PS4 he'd begged them for last year.

But Shiro had been saving up for years apparently, maybe even the second Keith had mentioned wanting it back when he was fifteen.

"Oh my god," Keith breathed, then he let out a startled laugh. "Oh my god, this is the coolest thing you've ever gotten me! Dude, I can't believe— Six hundred dollars? And I didn't even spend a dime on yours. My grandma gave me that locket, but I never had a use for it, so I figured you could use it for your grandparents since I know you were close to them. But this…" Keith didn't think he'd ever get over the enormity behind this present.

But Shiro was the complete opposite, shrugging as if this was the most normal thing in the world to be getting your best friend the most expensive telescope their teenage hearts could desire.

"That's all just material, Keith. What you gave me is infinitely more special because nobody can replicate this. Nobody else could give me a locket with my grandparents in them. I didn't even know you had any pictures of them, but I'm glad. Because you gave me the coolest present I've ever gotten."

"Shiro," Keith said, shaking his head lightly. He really did love their gift exchange tradition. The gifts they managed to give each other were so specific and designed for each other that no one else's gifts could come close to the way they knew each other's hearts, secrets, deepest desires.

"Here, let me help you carry that to Matt's car. I can see Katie giving me the evil eye," Shiro said, and Keith snapped out of his high as he felt the box being scooped from his hands.

Keith tightened his grip on the box. "I got it," he said highly, and Shiro backed away with hands raised in surrender, an amused smile on his lips. "I'm stronger than I look."

Keith yanked the box up into his arms, but it towered over his head, and he could hardly see past the side of it to walk straight. Shiro came up behind him laughing, and Keith didn't even protest in the way Shiro grasped onto his biceps to steer him straight.

Pidge's eyes were as round and as wide as saucers as she caught sight of the box Keith shoved into the backseat, immediately turning in her own seat to try and bombard Shiro and Keith with questions that he had yet to even think of himself. Before she could completely derail Shiro's attention, Keith slammed the door shut and leaned against it, her animated voice still traveling through the closed doors.

"Pidge is going to have a field day with this telescope. She'll probably try to mod it to do even cooler things than it can already do," Keith said, laughing to himself.

Shiro was standing in front of Keith looking nervous now, like he had things he wanted to say. Keith tried to calm his racing heart and waited.

Finally, Shiro bit his lip and said, "Keith, I know I haven't exactly been around lately. The last year of high school isn't exactly fruit picking time, but I should have made more of an effort to hang out with you. I always meant to, but—"

"You don't have to explain yourself. I get it, I do. We don't have time to be hanging out like we have no responsibilities anymore." Even though Keith would gladly toss his responsibilities out the window if it meant he'd get to goof around with Shiro like old times.

Shiro frowned, bringing his hands out of his pockets to articulate his words better. "But that's just it. We are kids, and yeah, maybe we're finally old enough to start shouldering some more responsibilities, but this is our last year just being kids. We should have been making the most of it." Shiro straightened and smiled down at Keith, like he was making the world's most exciting promise. "So, right now, I vow that I will make the time to hang out with you, and we can do whatever we want. I can watch you skate, or you could even teach me how to do it alongside you. And, I'll teach you how to throw a football. We can do it all, but we're gonna do it together because I miss being your best friend."

Keith missed Shiro, too.

Shiro hesitated a moment, pressing his lips together tightly, debating, before he reached out and lifted Keith's gloved hand, twirling it palm side up. "I don't know if you ever noticed, but … I never left you, Keith."

Keith frowned at him, not understanding what he was trying to say, but Shiro was looking at the cuff of Keith's gloves, and that's when Keith finally saw it. A tiny, insignificant detail that he'd somehow overlooked and mistaken for his own initials for years. On his right glove, stitched in the exact same spot as Keith's initials were on his other glove, were two letters.

ts.

A tiny breath punched its way from Keith, the discovery lighting up every single vein in Keith's body. Shiro had been right here with him this entire time, and he hadn't even noticed.

It was easy to let the smile slide onto his face as he watched Shiro's excited face glow beneath the stars, a sight that never failed to light his heart up.

"We should definitely do that. Hang out," Keith said, then his smile turned devious. "Even if you would have a hard time keeping your balance on that board."

"What?" Shiro said, letting Keith's hand fall from his hold. "Huh-ho, now you know I take that as a challenge, right? I have impeccable balance, ask anyone on the team."

"Whatever you say, Shiro," Keith said, opening the car door.

Right before he slid in, Shiro said, "And by the way, I just want you to know that one of these days, I'm going to upstage you during these gift exchanges. I'm gonna get you something so out of this world original, and you're going to have to accept defeat."

Shiro looked so honest as he said it that Keith almost believed him.

Almost.

Keith leaned over the top of the open car door and grinned mischievously cat like, his voice just as challenging as Shiro's promise. "I'd like to see you try."

four.

"Tomorrow's the night, Keith my man, and we are going all out in making this special for you," Lance said as he huffed and panted above the open box he was carrying from the hall closet into the living room. The box was spilling over with Christmas decorations from years past, garland and lights and ornaments jostling around inside. Lance dropped the box on the coffee table and placed his hands on his hips proudly.

Keith scoffed as he shouldered lance out of the way, ignoring the indignant, "Ow!" and sifting through yet another one of the many boxes he and Lance had spent the evening finding.

"What are you talking about, Lance? Tomorrow's the night for what? We're just going to get smashed, like always," Keith said. He rummaged around the box Lance had just brought out, but damn, it still wasn't here. "Where the hell—" he whispered to himself.

"What I'm talking about," Lance said, harshly blowing his hair from his eyes in one sweeping gust of breath, "is the declaration. The heart to heart. The big confession. You know."

Keith blinked.

"Lance, if you're not gonna help me look for the star—"

"Just hear me out," Lance said, but he got to work with double checking the other boxes Keith had already gone through. Useless. "Christmas is always a special time for you, we all know that. Every year, the seven of us always have to go out and do something crazy fun the week before Christmas because you just gotta have your Christmas fill. And sure, last night was fun with the arcade thing and seeing the entire crowd there cheer Pidge on as she went up against Lotor for the finale in air hockey, but I was thinking about something more … low key for tomorrow night."

Keith was only half-listening, a useful tactic he'd picked up in his sophomore year of college after meeting Lance for exactly 29 seconds. "Low key?"

"Yeeeah," Lance said slowly, and when he didn't say anything more, Keith thought that was definitely weird, so he finally stopped searching through his side of the boxes to stare Lance down.

Lance was chewing on his lip, pointedly avoiding Keith's intense glare, and if Keith squinted, he swore he saw a bit of sweat on his brow.

"What's wrong with you? You're acting even stranger than usual."

Lance finally stared right back at Keith, his own frown coming into play. "I am not strange, I just don't want to go to your stupid bar crawl tomorrow!"

"It's Christmas! We're adults! This is how we celebrate now!"

"Well, I think it's lame, and I already made plans with Allura to take her out to dinner!"

Keith groaned and went back into the boxes, his movements aggressive now. "We do this every year, Lance, you know this. We either go skiing at Pidge and Matt's parents' cabin, or we do the bar crawl together. You can't bail at the last minute. We all put money toward this, and you didn't even pay for your ticket, so don't do this now."

Lance sighed and flopped down onto the couch, tossing his arms out around himself looking so relaxed. His face was tense though as he thought about something, but Keith tried to ignore him.

"Look," Lance said, and he leaned forward to rest his elbows onto his knees. Keith continued to pull stuff from the box, not even looking for the dumb star anymore. "A lot of us have been thinking about it—"

"Oh, so now you're all going behind my back and shitting on my fun? Screw you, I didn't have to buy you that ticket. If you didn't wanna go, you should've told me last week before I bought the damn thing."

"Keith," Lance said, and something about the pleading tone made Keith pause and take a deep breath, calming himself before he could say something really stupid. "This isn't coming out right."

Keith snorted and turned from the box. The hall closet was still full of boxes mixed with his and Pidge and Matt and Shiro's things; that star just had to be in there somewhere.

"Keith, can you sit down for a minute?"

"Not likely," he said as he pulled another box out from the closet. This one looked promising. This one was full of shiny ornaments, some of his dad's knick knacks safely squared away in there, and right beneath the tangle of lights was something…

Lance sighed but went on anyway. "Then can I talk for two seconds without you interrupting me?" Keith didn't answer him, so Lance took that as consent. "It's you, Shiro, and Matt's last year of college, and the rest of us have just been thinking that maybe we should do our own thing this year. Allura doesn't feel good about the fake IDs the rest of us have to use, and she said she didn't wanna risk it this year. Hunk and Pidge were talking about maybe doing a double date thing with us if we decided to bail, and Pidge said that Matt was super close to finishing his robotic mech he plans on using next month at the competition." Lance paused. "And Shiro—"

"Found it!" Keith said, pulling the golden star out from beneath the tangle of lights and ornaments. Lance blinked at him, and Keith sighed defeatedly. "All right. I get it. Go off and have fun or whatever. I'll find something else to do."

It fucking sucked that all his friends seemed to be making plans behind his back, but it was whatever. He didn't need anyone else to make his Christmas special if they didn't want to be there. Not when he still had Shiro. Shiro would never bail on him.

Lance got to his feet, rubbing his hands together anxiously. "Really? You're not mad?" Lance whewed, wiping his hand across his forehead dramatically. "That went easier than I thought it was gonna be."

Keith scoffed and moved to clean up the entire mess he and Lance had made in going through all these boxes just for this one star. "What else am I supposed to say? Do what you want. I'll still have Shiro to celebrate with."

"Exactly!" Lance said, and Keith jumped at the volume. Too fucking loud, too fucking enthusiastic. Lance straightened and smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt. "I mean, I thought you'd prefer it that way, anyway. Which brings me back to my original point of tomorrow being the night."

"Oh, right. 'The heart to heart? The big confession?'" Keith rolled his eyes. "I still don't know what you mean by that."

Keith shoved box after box back into the hall closet while Lance stood in the middle of the living room with his hands in his pockets. Honestly, Keith didn't even know why he'd asked Lance to come over and help him go through these boxes because he hadn't done anything but run his mouth all evening.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lance said. "You gotta tell Shiro how you feel about him, man."

Keith tripped over air on his way back to the living room, his face heating up and his eyes widening the slightest bit, just enough to be dangerous. "Lance," he said warningly, but Lance was too fucking oblivious to pick up the hint.

"I mean, it's gonna be perfect. You and Shiro here at home, Matt and Pidge very conveniently out of the apartment, and oh, tomorrow is the 23rd, isn't that when you do your little gift rituals?"

As Keith stared wide eyed at Lance, everything began to click in his mind, piece by piece, the mortification sliding right over his entire body.

"Is this why no one wants to hang out tomorrow? Because you guys are trying to do some sort of … sort of … set up?"

"No!" Lance said quickly—too quickly. "Allura really did say that she didn't want to use the fake IDs this year, I'm not lying about that."

"So, what are you lying about?"

"Nothing! God, Keith, you're always so defensive about everything. Not everyone has ulterior motives, you know."

"But you just said—"

"Yeah, and when do you listen to anything I say, anyway? All I'm saying is don't be surprised if there's some big confessions going around tomorrow night."

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. "They won't be coming from me, that's for sure."

"Ugh, but why not? We all know you have a huge crush on your best friend—"

"Lance—"

"And we're not twelve years old; adults talk about their feelings now—"

"Lance—"

"And I, for one, happen to know that if you did make a move tomorrow night, you would not be rejected."

Keith gathered a breath for the final Lance and maybe a shove, but the breath got caught in his throat.

"What?" Keith said.

Lance had been standing there smugly, arms crossed and eyes closed. But they flew open then, eyes wide and caught. He eyed Keith for three seconds before he said, "Woah, there goes my phone." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone that was not ringing and shoved it to his ear. "Heeey, Allura, sweetie, light of my life, what do you need? Ohhh, right, I forgot about that. I'll bring them over right now. Right this second."

Lance ran by Keith and slipped his shoes on, holding his hand over the phone as he shook his head at Keith and mouthed sorry.

Keith watched him flounder about in confusion. "Lance, you're not talking to anyone."

Lance held the phone between his ear and shoulder as he slid his jacket on and zipped it up tight. "Yes, Allura, I'll tell Keith you said hi." He glanced up at Keith. "Allura says hi."

"But, she's not even—"

"'Kay, see ya, Keith! Let us know how tomorrow goes! Don't waste this gift you've been given!" And the door slammed shut as Lance let himself out.

Well then.

Keith glanced around his living room with his hands on his hips as he thought. Lance was strange on any given day, but tonight was peak Lance. Like "I've got a secret and I just can't hold it in" kind of Lance, and it made Keith anxious. What did Lance know? And why was he so adamant that he wouldn't be rejected?

Heat rose to his cheeks, and he gently laid his palm against it, cooling himself. Did Shiro say something? Was that why Lance had said not to be surprised if any confessions came out tomorrow?

Wait, no, but that was crazy. Shiro didn't have a crush on Keith. Keith thought he would have noticed by now since he spent all of his time just gazing at Shiro, studying him, watching him, admiring the way his muscles worked on his body. In all that time, Keith had never noticed Shiro gazing at him in any certain way other than friendly, so maybe Lance was just fucking around again. It wouldn't be the first time he'd stirred up drama with his assumptions.

Keith sighed and closed his eyes, his head falling back as a groan bellied out of him. Fucking Lance. Keith was going to end up killing him one of these days.

Picking the star up from where he'd dropped it earlier, he laid it up on the shelf by the tree and smiled fondly at it. Keith didn't know exactly what was going on with everyone, but he did know one thing: tomorrow was going to be interesting no matter what they did.

"Is that chocolate chip cookies that I'm smelling?" Shiro said as he lounged leisurely along their sofa, feet kicked up on the arm of the couch as he watched Keith hustle back and forth from the computer to the printer, his face etched in worry as he tried and failed to get the damn certificate printed out.

Shiro had no fucking idea what exactly Keith was printing, but it was a part of his Christmas present, so he gave Keith the space to deal with it with as much privacy as he could.

"Uh huh," Keith said distractedly, frowning as he pulled up a program on his laptop showing the amount of ink left in the printer. "Fuck," he whispered to himself. "We're out of ink." Keith clenched his fist tightly on the table before he slammed it down. "Dammit!"

"Woah, Keith, relax," Shiro said, pushing himself off the couch. "We can just go buy some more, okay? Easy fix."

"Man, I should have just printed it off last week when I printed out my gender paper."

Shiro came toward Keith but stopped just shy of the laptop on the table, still respectfully out of reach of the screen. "Then you wouldn't have had enough ink for the paper. Don't worry about it. We'll go out and get ink first thing tomorrow, and you can give me my present then."

"No," Keith said, pressing his fingers into his eyes. "You're definitely getting your present tonight, but…" Keith paused, remembering what Shiro had just said. "Cookies," he whispered, eyes flying wide as he ran past Shiro and into the kitchen.

The smell was stronger in here, the burnt smell of overcooked chocolate wafting through his nose, attacking his senses. "Fuck," he said, coughing as he swished the smoke away with his hands. He grabbed up the oven mitt and hurriedly yanked the oven door open, smoke bellowing hotly into his face. He blindly reached for the pan and dropped it onto the stove top, pulling the oven mitt off to ward off the smoke gathering in the kitchen.

"Keith!" Shiro said as he rushed in behind him and waved the smoke away from his face. "Are you okay?"

Keith's heart sank even lower at the ruined Christmas cookies just barely visible through the fog of smoke. Couldn't anything go right tonight?

He stared at Shiro miserably, tossing the oven mitt onto the counter as he made his way out of the smoky kitchen. Tonight was supposed to be beautiful, perfect, and maybe he'd even thought about following Lance's advice and taking advantage of this alone time he managed to get with Shiro. There was no way in hell he was going to do anything brave now, not when all his confidence had zipped right out of him.

Keith slid the balcony door open and stepped up against the railing, breathing in the fresh night air. It was comforting to feel the bite of snow hitting against his cheeks as he stood on the balcony in loose pajama clothing, which was just a thin long-sleeved band shirt and some silky pajama pants Shiro had gotten him a few Christmases ago. It did nothing to keep him warm against the winter weather, but Keith welcomed the bitter cold.

Shiro came out a few moments later, a tiny wrapped present in his hand. He'd grabbed his coat up to protect against the chill, something Keith probably should have done if he hadn't run away from the double failure inside so hastily.

Shiro stopped beside him and stared up at the stars dotting the sky with wonder. Oh, but Shiro had no idea just how truly wonderful the stars could be.

"Well, at least we know we have defective smoke alarms," Shiro said.

Keith probably would have laughed if he hadn't felt so embarrassed. How could he have forgotten the chocolate chip cookies? It was the easiest fucking thing in the world. And then he couldn't even print out the certificate that was supposed to go with Shiro's present tonight. The night had just gotten so messy for Keith, and his heart just wasn't in it right now.

Shiro took one look at Keith's face and probably decided the same because he turned his back on the stars and held out his present for Keith, a comforting smile on his face. "Merry Christmas, Keith."

Keith sighed, and after staring into Shiro's eyes for a moment, letting his peaceful energy tame the sullenness within him, he accepted the gift with a gracious smile.

It was extremely thin this year, a tiny flimsy paper-like material that bent when he went to tear the paper off. When Keith recognized what he was holding after the paper fell away, he let out a startled laugh.

"This your idea of rebelling? Fake tattoos?" Keith grinned down at the temporary tattoo sheets on the two pieces of paper, one with the Scorpio constellation and one with the Pisces.

It had become a sort of joke between them that they'd get matching tattoos one day, but they could never agree on what to get. Keith had wanted dangerous and cool, a blade or a sword. Shiro wanted soft and meaningful, a bird or a lion, something connected to them both. They'd finally agreed that any type of constellation would be good, and when Keith brought astrology into it, Shiro had laughed at him because Shiro was a man of science, and astrology was for dreamers. But Shiro could never deny how much he liked the pisces constellation and the mythology behind it.

It was all wishful thinking though because Shiro had always squirmed at the idea of a tattoo, of needles prickling against his skin in a permanent way. Shiro had always worried that he might change his mind about the tattoo one day in the future, and what could he do then? So Keith had given up on that idea.

Keith laughed as he studied the constellations. He supposed even temporary tattoos could be considered a win. They could take pictures, and then Keith would have the moment forever, just like a tattoo.

"Temporary tattoos are all the rage, I hear," Shiro said, which only made Keith laugh harder because it was such a dad thing to say. Shiro might have been the oldest in their friend group, but it was times like these that he was always reminded of that fact that he always managed to forget.

Keith quieted down and nodded seriously, trying hard to hold in the laugh bubbling forth. "Totally. You're such a rebel."

Shiro laughed and ruffled Keith's head. Keith let the laugh escape again as he jerked away from his touch and smoothed his hair back into place.

"You think that's rebellious? I'll show you rebellious," Shiro said, and he reached into his back pocket to pull out another small card and handed it over. "Check this out."

Keith was still shaking his head as he grabbed it and read the few lines on the small card.

Coran, Coran, the Tattoo Man!

December 24th 11 AM

Keith blinked and read the card again, his heart rate jumping wildly with knowledge his brain was too slow to get out.

"Wait… Is this what I think it is?" Keith said as he shot his gaze up to Shiro. Shiro was brimming with excitement, his eyes as bright as the stars.

"An appointment to make those temporary tattoos real ones? Uh, yeah, it is."

Keith gasped, turning back to the tattoos in his hands that now felt ten times more important. How stupid he was to think that Shiro would just give him some temporary tattoos for Christmas. Of course this was where he was headed.

"Are you serious? We're getting matching tattoos tomorrow?" Keith said highly, his voice rising with his excitement.

Shiro smiled resignedly at Keith, letting his eyes float upward toward the sky. "Unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, I one hundred percent want to do this with you, but I gotta admit, I'm still nervous about the whole thing. It's just so … permanent. It's scary."

Keith grabbed a hold of Shiro's arm and said, "You have no reason to be afraid, Shiro, because we're doing this together. You and me, like always. I wouldn't let you do something I know you'd regret, but you're gonna love it, I know you are, because no matter where we go in life, you'll always be able to look at it and see me, remember us. It'll have meaning."

The tension in Shiro's gaze melted away with each word Keith told him, the softness now in its place easing knots Keith didn't know he'd had in his chest. Twenty-one years into his life, twelve years into their friendship, and Shiro was still able to chase away the worry inside of him with one look.

Man, Keith was so in love.

Shiro patted Keith's hand on his arm and held it there, his warmth traveling and warming Keith from the inside.

"'No matter where we go'? You plan on going somewhere?" Shiro was smiling gently at him, but there was a bit of apprehension in his eyes, a look that matched the controlled tone of his voice.

Keith shook his head, his bangs swaying lightly with the motion. "Not on your life, but who knows what can happen? We won't always be twenty feet from each other no matter how much we may want to."

Shiro gazed down at the tattoo sheets in Keith's hands, his fingers idly running over Keith's knuckles. "Says who?"

Keith chuckled. "Says life."

Shiro hummed, biting his lip as he nodded. "Well, I'd like to have some words with life. Tell her exactly what I want from her and demand it with all the wishes I have left."

"You're such a dork," Keith said, shoving Shiro away playfully. He brought his hands up to rub along his clothed arms, the chill getting harder to ignore from out here with no jacket. Stupid Keith and his hastiness.

Shiro frowned at him and began to unzip his own coat. "Are you cold? Here, you can have mine," he said, but Keith was already shaking his head.

"I'm good. I'm cold, but I like it. It helps my head clear."

"It also helps you catch a cold faster. Seriously, when are you going to learn that colds are avoidable?"

"Oh, shut up, and get over here. Or, do you not want your present?"

Keith led them to the other side of the balcony, skipping along on the tips of his toes quickly to warm himself. It helped a little, but Shiro looked so much warmer in his puffy jacket.

Keith settled his face against the telescope he had perched on the balcony. The same one Shiro had gotten him in high school. It was still the coolest thing, and he, Shiro, Pidge, and Matt came out here some nights to watch comets fly or just to stargaze.

"I think it's gonna be pretty hard to upstage me this time, Keith. I'm giving you something so permanent that I can never take it back, something so completely precious that it's—"

"Check right here," Keith said, stepping back and urging Shiro toward the telescope. Shiro only eyed Keith for a second, turning his attention to the sky before back to Keith.

"Up there? You expect me to believe that whatever you got me is better than the untouched skin of my body?"

Keith swallowed, but he chuckled past it, nodding toward the telescope. "Just look."

Shiro sighed dramatically and leaned down to hold his eye against the telescope. "Okay, so there's a pretty bright star. What is it, a part of Pisces, or something? Scorpio? I don't recognize it."

Keith bit his lip, his heart racing painfully with the weight of his gift pressing down on him. Keith took a deep breath, held it, and Shiro gazed back at him. "I don't get it," Shiro said, a crinkle of confusion in his brows. "Why're you showing me this star?" Shiro turned back to the telescope, and Keith slowly let his breath out, little rings of air floating from his mouth.

"Do you know what that star is called?"

"No," Shiro said immediately. He rose back up and studied Keith. "Should I?"

Keith shook his head softly. Shiro looked so confused, like he was letting Keith down by not knowing the names of the stars. But it was so adorable to Keith because Shiro wouldn't know. That star didn't even have a name until two weeks ago.

"Takashi," Keith whispered, and Shiro only frowned harder, and he didn't get it. He didn't get it and his confusion was so cute. "Coordinates Pisces, right ascension 52 minutes and 36.7 seconds, declination 16 degrees. Takashi," he said again, and this time Shiro's eyes widened.

"Takashi?" he whispered back, glancing back into the telescope with renewed interest. Shiro laughed, sounding incredulous. "Are you serious? How did you— How did you even manage to find this star?"

Keith brought his fingers up to pick at the tips, nearly hysterical with amusement because Shiro still didn't get it. "Because I was the one who named it."

Shiro froze, and there was no way he could misinterpret that. Keith damn well spelled it out for him that time.

Keith's nerves were on fire as he waited for Shiro to react, but he still hadn't moved his face from the telescope.

"I mean, it's not like some big official thing, you know. But it's in a registry for the world to read, and for anyone to see when they look up in the sky. They even gave me a certificate I could give to you, but the fucking ink…" Keith said, trailing off.

Keith knew he was doing something over the top this year. Naming a fucking star after someone? Did best friends even do that for each other? It felt like a declaration of some kind as he waited with bated breath for Shiro's response. That conversation with Lance last night had really opened Keith's heart to the idea that maybe he could finally say something to Shiro, tell him that yeah, I kind of like you. I've kind of always liked you. Lance was right; they were adults, and adults weren't supposed to hide behind crushes. They were supposed to do something about those feelings bumping around in their chest.

Maybe that was why Keith did it. Maybe Keith had subconsciously known that he was tired of holding it in all this time, and maybe he was hoping for Shiro to finally take notice this time. Now that it was out there, there was nothing he could do to take it back. And honestly, he didn't want to take it back. He did his part. He put this declaration out there for the taking, and now it was up to Shiro.

Shiro finally pulled away from the telescope, his eyes wide as he slowly locked eyes with Keith. Keith could only hold his breath he was struck by the intensity of his gaze. "Keith," he whispered, his name sounding so soft coming from his lips. It brought back the time when they were nine and Keith had given Shiro his very first Christmas present. Shiro had said his name just like this, a caress through the wind, but the sound lit up a thousand different nerve endings in Keith now, the sound no longer so innocent as it had once been.

Shiro breathed in deeply, like he too had forgotten how to breath, and then he grabbed up Keith's hands in his. The shock of warmth was startling enough to illicit a gasp from him, but Shiro was suddenly up in his face, as serious as he'd ever seen him. "There's something I have to tell you," Shiro said roughly, the sound grating through Keith's shocked confusion.

"Wh—What's that?"

Shiro licked his lips, lips parted slightly as if he were going to say something, but then his eyes slid down to Keith's lips, and any words they could have said were tossed out the window with the rest of their secrets as Shiro let out a harsh breath and leaned forward to capture Keith's mouth up in his.

That first touch was lightning zinging through Keith's entire body, the coldness dripping away from him with each shared breath passed between them. Keith's countless dreams did not do Shiro justice as their mouths slid against each other, not as wet or as warm as he'd imagined because it was fucking cold out and their mouths were a bit dry, but it was no less magical to Keith.

Shiro's arms came around Keith, trapping him to him as his hand slid up Keith's neck to hold him the way he liked, forcing Keith's head this way and that so Shiro could lick deeply into his eager mouth. And Keith accepted it all, could never even think about rejecting anything Shiro wanted from him because he'd already given Shiro his heart, he just didn't know it yet. Shiro was coming for Keith, and Shiro had no idea that he already had him wholeheartedly, from the very day they'd met in the schoolyard.

Keith's hands had slipped in-between Shiro's open jacket, his hands clutching the fabric of Shiro's shirt, searching for warmth in every place that he could find. His head was swimming, Shiro damn well kissing him dizzy, and their chests were heaving against each other as their body temperatures rose. He could hardly breathe anymore, but he couldn't get enough, he couldn't leave this moment because it was so perfect. He could die just from this, and he'd feel like the luckiest man in the universe.

But Shiro finally pulled away, leaning his forehead against Keith's as he panted heavily, the air they both sought passing back and forth between them in the small space between their open mouths.

Keith was slow to open his eyes, but Shiro was even slower, humming contentedly with his eyes closed still. Keith huffed a small laugh. "So," he said, voice low and breathless. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

Shiro opened his eyes dazedly as he pulled back enough to stare at Keith without going cross-eyed before he laughed, a slow laugh that built up within his chest, getting louder with each passing second. Keith joined him, dropping his forehead onto Shiro's broad chest and laughing into his shirt. He slid his arms all the way around Shiro, loving the warmth beneath his jacket.

"I, uh... I can't remember," Shiro said, and Keith chuckled again, snuggling closer into Shiro.

"You're so warm," Keith said, closing his eyes. He could very well fall asleep just like this.

"You're just close to hypothermia," Shiro said, and Keith rolled his eyes. "Come on, can we please go inside before you catch a cold? I'd much rather you didn't catch the flu because I couldn't think clearly enough to bring us inside."

Keith sighed and went to pull away. "Fiiine," he said like it was the most terrible thing, but before he could completely leave the circle of Shiro's arms, Shiro tightened his hold on Keith, keeping one of Keith's arms locked around his waist while he dropped his other arm around Keith's shoulder to warm his other arm. Keith ducked his head to hide his smile as Shiro steered them inside.

The smell was what hit him first, and Keith groaned as the disaster chocolate chip cookies flooded his memory. "My Christmas cookies," Keith pouted as Shiro led them to the couch. He felt Shiro's chest rumble beside him, and he was about to slap him and berate him for laughing when Shiro fell to the couch, circling his arms around Keith to bring him with him. An indignant squeal flew from Keith's lips as he landed on top of Shiro's stretched out body, but he would deny it if Shiro ever said anything.

"Aww," Shiro cooed, tracing his finger along Keith's pouting bottom lip in amusement. "It's okay. We can make some more later once the kitchen clears. I already had the vents running, and we had the balcony door open for a bit, so it shouldn't be too much longer."

Keith dropped the side of his face against Shiro's chest and laid there, humming his assent. Shiro's hand fell to Keith's back as he slid it lazily up and down his spine, tracing the curve of it with tender care. Keith closed his eyes at the feeling, the urge to sleep flooding his mind once more. It was just so easy to fall into that feeling with Shiro, and he wondered if that thought should scare him. How easily this all felt.

Staring at their lit-up Christmas tree in the corner of the room somehow gave Keith the courage to speak, his voice a low and strong current in the stagnant room.

"I was gonna tell you tonight, you know. That I like you. It was so stupid, but it was Lance who made tonight possible. Apparently, they all knew how we felt about each other and took it up on their selves to make tonight a quiet night in for us. Lance said I shouldn't waste the gift they gave us, and I didn't plan on it. I was gonna tell you everything, how I realized I liked you since high school when you suddenly came to school after summer all jacked up with muscles. How every time I see you it just makes me the happiest person in the world to know that I get to call you my best friend. You mean a lot to me, Shiro, and I wanted you to know."

They were quiet for a while, the steady sound of Shiro's heartbeat in his ear comforting, and Keith might have just fallen asleep for about two seconds. But Shiro spoke into the quiet, and Keith's ears immediately perked up.

"I like you, too, Keith. I have for a long time; maybe even longer than I realized," Shiro started quietly, and Keith didn't move. He just laid there and waited to hear what Shiro had to say.

"You've been my best friend since we were little, and for the longest time that had been enough. I love it, I loved our friendship, and I loved that it was you who was my best friend. The coolest and gentlest kid in our class. I used to look up to you when we were kids, like you were a hero or something. You were certainly my hero that day on the playground, tossing that worm on that girl like it was you who she had wronged," Shiro said, and Keith chuckled softly. "No one's ever stood up for me like that. No one still hasn't, not like you do.

"I missed you in high school. I got so busy with all those other preps who were just demanding my time, and I didn't feel like I could tell them no. Not if I wanted to be accepted fully into their social circle. But then I hardly got to see you, and that bothered me. But that last year helped. I think I loved learning how to skateboard with you, and ending up with bruises all over my body, than I ever enjoyed going to track meet ups and school fundraisers with any of those other people.

"And Adam..." Shiro huffed. "That was hard. I really liked him, and I thought that I loved him, but really, I think I just loved not feeling alone with that crowd. Out of all those people, Adam was the best of them, the one most like myself, and I held onto that because I didn't have you." Shiro paused, dropping his voice. "I realize now how wrong of me that was, using him like that. But I didn't really know it then; all I knew was that I felt good being around him, almost normal, and I didn't stop to think about why."

"You were a teenager," Keith said, frowning as he listened to the self-loathing in Shiro's tone. "That's definitely not the shittiest thing a teenager has ever done in a relationship. And you realized your mistake, and once you had, you broke it off with him."

"Yeah, halfway through our first year of college. Two years was way too long to give to someone my heart didn't truly desire."

Keith pushed his head up and rested his chin on Shiro's chest, gazing at him with as much acceptance as he could muster. "You're not a bad person, Shiro. Everyone makes mistakes, and just because you didn't love him the way he deserved doesn't mean you didn't feel nothing for him. You were hurting, too."

Shiro's fingers were curling around Keith's hair at the back of his neck, his gaze soft as he looked at Keith. "I just wish I had the courage back then to do what I did tonight. I can't believe it took me this long to make a move on you, but it was terrifying actually. I always wondered if I'd just get rejected, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship by trying to take it further. Our friendship is the most important thing to me above any other feelings I have, and I wanted to preserve the integrity of that.

"But then you went ahead and named an entire star after me... And, I really thought I had you this year. I really thought I was gonna win the gift competition this year."

Keith snorted amusedly. "It was never a competition. I told you, I love every present from you. You always know exactly what to get me to blow my mind. And besides, it's not like it's official or anything. NASA won't recognize it—"

"Nope, don't care," Shiro said, squeezing his arms around Keith like his favorite teddy bear. "It's my star now. It's official, and I'm gonna have a certificate to prove it. I'm gonna frame it and set it between your little red lion and my painted bird on the shelf over there."

Keith giggled as Shiro loosened his tight hold and smoothed his hands comfortingly up and down his back.

"But a star," Shiro said, still in wonder. "I don't think I'll ever be able to top that. Not even with all the money in the world will anything compare to what you gave me tonight." Shiro looked mildly distraught, and Keith smooshed his face with his hand as he rose to his feet.

"That just means you'll have to get twice as creative. And come help me with this, will ya?"

Keith made for the golden star he'd set on the shelf yesterday, and when Shiro popped up beside him, he watched him glow.

"The star," Shiro said excitedly, grabbing it up from Keith's hands. He looked like an overexcited child as he grinned down at the piece, and Keith was glad he was able to find it after searching for countless hours if just for the look on Shiro's face right now. "I almost forgot about it. Finals really kicked our asses this month; I'm surprised we even had the energy to decorate this place with what little time we had left of December."

Keith eyed the lights hanging down from the walls, encasing the room in a warm glow. "Better late than never, right?"

Shiro smiled fondly at him, handing the star back to him. "You bet. Still need a boost?" Shiro said, holding his hands out for him. Keith scoffed at him.

"Still not being raised up there like baby Simba. Come on, hands and knees, you know the drill."

Shiro giggled but dropped down anyway, offering his back as a step stool for Keith to wobble on so he could carefully slide the star into place on their huge plastic tree. It wasn't practical for them to have a real tree in these student apartments, but this tree had done them good for two years now, and it was so much easier to deal with.

Keith hopped down and offered Shiro a hand up, which he took and jumped to his feet. Shiro wrapped his arm around Keith, and Keith rested his head against Shiro's chest, the two of them admiring their brightly colored tree now that it was complete with a star on its head.

Christmas had come right on time this year, and Keith had everything he needed.

five.

Life didn't get any better than this. Driving down the highway with a good pal while two rare, exotic lovebirds sat strapped in the backseat in their travel cages, soft melodic music playing for the birds' benefit.

And Hunk's. Hunk's benefit.

Hunk was humming along blissfully as he nodded his head rhythmically to the music. It was peaceful music, instrumental, but the constant drone of clarinets and flutes singing together in harmony was beginning to drive Keith mad with its calming tone.

"Do we not have any other CDs we can play? Jesus, fuck the birds, I need something else, I can't listen to this for another second," Keith said as he smashed the eject button, Shiro's worn classical CD that they only ever put on when the birds were in the car sliding out, but before he could yank it the rest of the way and toss it out the window, Hunk had already pushed the CD back in, safe from Keith's grabby fingers.

"Uh uh uh," Hunk said, waving his finger at Keith. "Soft music only. That's what all the websites say, and it's also what that nice elderly couple had reminded us about just two hours ago. Remember?"

Oh, he remembered, he just didn't care anymore. Shiro had constantly told him that music was important around birds, and they had to be careful to never put on music that might stress the bird out, but dammit, what about Keith's stress? There was only so much classical he could take before he exploded like an abused bottle of coke.

"Okay, okay," Hunk said, raising his hands in surrender to Keith's glowering mood. "No music then. That's fine. No music is better than harsh music. It's a win win situation here."

They drove in silence for awhile while Keith's temper died down, and a few miles out, all he was left with was the embarrassment from his hotheaded attitude

"I'm sorry, Hunk. I overreacted back there. Of course I know the music is important for the birds mental health. I was just annoyed and being an ass about it. I know all there is to know about birds; living with Shiro will do that to you."

"It's okay. I totally understand. I mean, if I had to be in the car with someone who was playing something I didn't like, like heavy metal? Ugh, I think I might have just opened the car door and rolled away as fast as I could."

Keith chuckled, his chest clearing of any lingering annoyance as he let himself enjoy the serenity. "Still, I didn't have to lose my cool. I probably scared the birds a little back there. They probably think their new owner is a maniac already."

"Nah, they're gonna love you guys," Hunk said, turning around in his seat to admire the birds. "Yes, you are, aren't you? Shiro is gonna take great care of you guys, I'm so excited for you." To Keith, he said, "You know what you're gonna name them yet?"

Keith glanced back at the birds through the rear view mirror as he hummed. "Well, Shiro will definitely want me to name one, but I think I might wait to see what name he chooses for his so the names can go together."

"Ah, gotcha. Smart move. You wouldn't to end up with a pair of love birds named Sonny and King Alfred. Imagine that, huh?"

Keith chuckled. "What? Why would we ever name them King Alfred?"

"I don't know how Shiro's mind works when he names his birds. I mean, he named his last one Curtis. Where the heck did he get that name? It didn't even look like a Curtis."

"Hey, Curtis the African Grey is a beloved member of our family. He's the most advanced parrot we have, and he's Shiro's favorite," Keith said. Then, quietly, he added, "Even if he does have an incredibly random name."

"Ah ha! You admit it. It's cool, man, I won't tell. We all talked about the name for days when you first got him for Shiro that one Christmas."

"You did?" Why wasn't Keith surprised that his friends constantly mocked Shiro and Keith behind their backs?

"Oh, yeah, totally. Nothing bad, you know, but Curtis was comedy gold for us. We tried for hours to figure out where Shiro had come up with that name until someone finally said that that was probably Shiro's secret stripper name; everyone generally accepted that theory, and that's why we laugh whenever you two mention Curtis," Hunk said, laughing to himself now, and after a minute of trying to stomp it out, Keith giggled, laughing along with him.

When Keith finally pulled into the parking lot leading up to his and Shiro's condo, he cut the engine off and sat with his back sagged against the seat for a minute. Then, he glanced at Hunk.

"We are so going to hell for laughing at Curtis."

Hunk helped Keith carry the cage inside the apartment, and as soon as Keith flipped on the lights, Curtis greeted them.

He squawked once before saying, "Hello, Shiro. Hello."

Keith rounded the corner into the living room and laughed as he caught sight of Curtis moving around inside of his cage. Keith walked over to him and placed his hands on his knees as he leaned down enough to face Curtis eye to eye.

"Not Shiro, buddy. Keith."

Curtis walked along the length of his perch, eyeing Keith the entire way, then he said, "Be nice to Keith."

Hunk laughed as he settled the lovebirds' cage onto the coffee table behind Keith. "I'm a little curious as to why that's the first thing that comes out of his mouth when he hears your name."

Keith sighed as he straightened, tossing his car keys onto the coffee table beside the lovebirds. "Curtis is bonded to Shiro, so he sort of sees him as his mate. I think he's jealous of me, and that's why he bit me one time."

"He bit you?" Hunk said, his fingers flying to his mouth.

"Yeah," Keith said, rolling up his sleeve to display the tiny inch long scar on his forearm. It was a light white line now just above the Scorpio tattoo on his wrist. "It was like a year and a half ago. That's when we realized that he'd bonded with Shiro because he started acting really aggressive toward me. I couldn't even be around without Shiro without Curtis going apeshit. But, Shiro helped him feel easy around me again. He fed him treats when he didn't bite me, and he praised him when I put my hand near him again. And Shiro always said to him during that time, 'Be nice to Keith.' So, Curtis eventually just picked it up."

Keith leaned back down and cooed at Curtis. "But you don't bite anymore, do you, Curtis? Yeah, you know Shiro will disown your a—"

"Language!" Hunk said.

Keith snorted and turned back to the lovebirds. "I wasn't gonna say it," Keith said, but they both knew he was lying. "Man. Okay. So I have to keep these hidden for two more days."

"The 23rd, yes. You gonna give it to him after your dinner date or before? Because if you ask me, I'd say before."

Keith frowned at Hunk, noting the confident way he suggested the idea like he had any clue."Well, I wasn't asking, but now I am."

Hunk's eyebrows rose innocently. "Huh? Ask me what?"

"Hunk," he said lowly, in that way he was always able to intimidate his friends. Or, he tried to at least. But, with Hunk, it always worked the best. "Why would you say it would be better to give it to him before? Do you know something? Did he get me those concert tickets I've been moping about for months?"

The concert tickets to his favorite fucking band in the universe with tickets so unattainable that it felt like he had to be on a secret list just to gain access to them. He'd complained about it for months, and he'd guaranteed Shiro that if he somehow got his hands on those tickets, it would be the year he'd won the competition that wasn't really a competition but totally was.

Keith was biting his lip excitedly as the idea took hold of him. Was this why Hunk wanted him to give up his present first? Because this was finally Shiro's year?

"What?" Hunk squeaked. "I never said that! I—I just thought it'd be better to get the presents out of the way before dinner! I promise!"

Keith's little fanboy heart was exulted, squealing on the inside as he clenched his fists in excitement. Oh, man, Keith was definitely going to let Shiro do that thing that he'd wanted to try in bed for months now. Even if Keith thought it was a little weird. Could be fun, though.

"Keith, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I didn't say anything, and you shouldn't assume anything, and more importantly," Hunk said, placing his hands behind Keith to spur him into action, "We need to hide these birds before Shiro gets home from work in exactly … five minutes."

"What…?" Keith said, blinking, still dazed. But, when Curtis squawked and said, "Shiro's home!" Keith gasped and glanced at the clock hanging over the faux fireplace.

"The lovebirds! Right!" Keith gently scooped the cage up and carefully ran them into the spare bedroom and into the empty closet. Shiro never came in this room, and hopefully the muffled chatter from the lovebirds could be masked with the sound of the parakeets in their bedroom.

He quickly set up a tiny desk light in the closet so the birds weren't doused in darkness before he shut the closet door and ran back out to Hunk and Curtis quietly conversing with each other in the living room.

"And then I said, 'You can't throw those pastries in there with the rest of the cookies! They're not worthy!'"

Keith shook his head at them, frazzled, checking the clock, running a hand through his hair. "Okay. They're tucked away where Shiro shouldn't be looking, and everything is done." Keith said, and then he flopped down onto the couch beside Hunk, resting his hands on his belly. "You know, Shiro has been looking for these specific lovebirds for years, but we could never find them. Do you know how lucky I was to get that call from that old couple telling me that they'd finally gotten their hands on what I'd been looking for? It's one in a thousand, man."

Hunk hummed to himself as he relaxed beside Keith, weaving his fingers together behind his head. "It does seem like fate wanted Shiro to have these birds." Hunk was quite for a moment before he turned to look at Keith, voice unexpectedly soft. "He's lucky to have you, Keith."

Keith turned and stared back at Hunk, feeling his face warm up at the words. He smiled softly at him, grateful for his friends, each and every single one of them. "Thanks, Hunk. But I'm the lucky one here."

Hunk chuckled. "The fact that you even say that proves how smart Shiro was in choosing you. You both deserve each other, and I want you to know that we're all rooting for you guys."

Keith blinked rapidly against the tightness in his throat, and he settled himself back against the couch to hide just how emotional he was feeling. "Thanks," he said again, though the word just sounded too lame in comparison to the feelings he was caught in. He was gonna have to make sure he got Hunk something extra special this year.

"Go ahead and say it," Keith said, his voice tight and stuffy as he sagged against the couch tiredly. He was cuddled up under Shiro's huge blanket since Keith's blanket wasn't exactly designed for warmth as much as it was designed to look cool.

He felt terrible, his nose running messily, and his cheeks warm and red. His throat felt like an open wound, and it hurt every time he tried to swallow down some food or drinks. Thankfully Curtis seemed to be mindful tonight because he wasn't hassling Keith with veiled threats he'd learned to get past Shiro.

Just like Shiro had always said about going out in the freezing winter in minimal clothing, Keith had caught a cold.

Shiro came from the kitchen with a slight frown on his face, his hands full with a bowl of steaming soup. Keith had just woken back up from a nap, and he didn't even know they had any soup in their home.

"Go ahead and say what?" Shiro said as he knelt down on the floor beside Keith's cuddled up form. Keith was facing toward the back of the couch, but he turned his head enough to watch Shiro fuss about.

"You know what I'm talking about," he said, blinking past the bleariness in his vision and gesturing very obviously to his sick self. Shiro frowned even harder.

"Why would I say I told you so? You look awful, Keith, and that's a horrible thing to say to someone anyway. Now, sit up; let's try and eat this."

Keith groaned, the sound fucking his throat up even worse, but the sound of food sounded like downright torture. "Nooo. I'm not hungry."

"I know you're feeling rotten, but not eating at all is going to make you feel worse."

"I'm just gonna throw it back up."

"But at least you'll have something to throw up. Come on, quit your whining and sit up."

Keith glared at Shiro but slowly inched himself upwards anyway, the diminished strength in his arms only just able to manage the feat. "You're much nicer when you're not bossing me around like a child."

Shiro sighed, squeezing his eyes closed beneath his fingers. "Keith, you know it's not like that. I'm just worried about you, and I'm trying to make this better in the best way I know how. And lying there on an empty stomach is not the best thing to be doing. You may not be worried about yourself, but I am. So please."

Keith bit his lip as he watched Shiro struggle, fighting to keep the concern at bay but unable to keep it from crossing over completely. Shiro was seriously concerned for Keith, worrying himself crazy over how to help, and Keith felt like an asshole for making light of the situation.

Keith reached over and weakly pulled Shiro's metal hand away from his face to grasp it in his own hand. Shiro glanced down at him miserably as Keith tried to muster up an apologetic smile. "Sorry. You're right, I do need something to settle my stomach. I'm sorry," he said quietly. He lifted Shiro's hand up to his mouth and lightly pressed his lips against the cool metal in an effort to relax Shiro.

Shiro sighed as he balanced the bowl on the edge of the couch with one hand and rubbed Keith's knuckles with the other. "I just want to help."

"I know," Keith said and grabbed up the bowl from Shiro's hand.

"I can do it," Shiro tried to say, but Keith was already smacking his hands away from the bowl.

"I'm not helpless," he said, smiling at the pout on Shiro's face. "You can help me later when it's gift time. I'm definitely gonna need your help anyway because I can't lift anything over five pounds right now."

Shiro gulped and pulled at the collar of his shirt, tugging it away from his neck anxiously. "Right. Gift time."

Keith didn't have the mental capacity to breakdown Shiro's odd behavior, so he just kept eating his soup in silence. The warm liquid did feel good going down his bruised throat, and by the time he finished eating, he did feel a bit better. Definitely full.

Shiro took the empty bowl away, and while Keith could hear him as he washed it clean, Keith went back to cuddling against the side of the couch, almost asleep when he felt his legs being lifted and then gently placed back over Shiro's thighs. The sound of the TV cut on, but he was tired again, sleepy, and he fell in and out of consciousness as Shiro busied himself with watching Christmas movies for awhile.

Keith's mind was numb to his surroundings, but he couldn't help the way his thoughts floated through his head completely unfiltered, making Keith feel worse and worse with each thought.

It was the 23rd, it was gift day, and also Shiro had booked this very romantic dinner at this posh place uptown that he'd had to book several months in advance for a day as busy as the day before Christmas Eve. The plan for today had been to dress to impress, have a nice candlelit dinner together, and then head home for their gifts.

But, of course, Keith had to ruin it by going out a couple days ago for an impromptu snowball fight without a jacket on. But the snow had looked so alluring being so fresh on the ground, and Pidge had thrown the first snowball at him. He couldn't let her get away with that.

He hadn't even thought about going back in for his jacket, so him and Pidge had tousled around in the snow for a while like complete children and not like 25-year-olds, and now they were both suffering the consequences of that bad decision.

Really, he was just upset that he'd ruined Shiro's evening. They were supposed to be out having fun together, basking in the Christmas glow that Shiro always managed to encompass Keith in, and instead, Shiro was stuck here caring for a stupidly sick Keith.

Keith moaned at the sadness in his heart, and he was able to open his eyes and turn to Shiro sluggishly.

"'M sorry, Shiro," he mumbled, blinking his eyes open and forcing himself to be attentive. The task was easier to do now that he'd gotten a bit of rest and had some food in his belly.

Shiro gazed over at Keith in confusion for a moment before he leaned over and pressed the back of his hand against Keith's clammy forehead. Keith closed his eyes against the cool feeling of his skin, sighing contentedly.

"Are you being delirious? You're not as warm as before, so that's good," Shiro said, letting his hand slide down to cup Keith's cheek. Keith nuzzled into the coolness of his flesh, moaning softly.

"I'm not delirious," Keith mumbled, his lips sliding across Shiro's palm. "I'm just sorry."

"For what?"

"For ruining our night."

Shiro made a sound in the back of his throat, and Keith finally locked eyes with him. Shiro was smiling reassuringly at him. "You didn't ruin anything. You got sick; it happens. As long as we spend this night together, then you know I'm happy."

Keith humphed. Classic Shiro always happy with whatever Keith could give. But Keith wanted to give him the entire world and more. He would one day.

"I have an idea," Shiro said, and Keith blinked up at him. Keith was awake and attentive, but he was just slow to move. "Why don't we do our presents now?"

Keith nodded, snuggling back into Shiro's hand on his cheek. "Sure. You start."

"Uhhh," Shiro said, and Keith blinked an eye open at him, then another when he noticed his hesitance. "Why don't you start? I really want to see what you got me."

Keith's alarm bells were going off, but he was too warm and content under Shiro's hand to question it.

"I can hardly walk, Shiro."

"I'll carry you," Shiro said happily, and within seconds he was scooped up into Shiro's strong arms easily as if he weighed nothing.

Keith groaned unhappily, but he wrapped his arms around Shiro's neck anyway, and said, "The spare bedroom."

Shiro led them into the bedroom with careful steps, trying to keep the jostling to a minimum. He gently eased Keith down onto the bed into a sitting position, and Keith leaned his weight on his hands, grasping the edge of the bed. He nodded toward the closet. "In there."

Shiro shot him a confused look and hooked his thumb over in the direction of the closet. "In there? This whole time?"

Keith huffed a laugh. "Only two days."

Shiro chuckled to himself as he went to the closet, and when he opened it, the shine from the desk light Keith had set up in there burst out into the dark room, and Keith had to squint and hold out a hand to block out the harsh light.

He could hear Shiro gasp as the sound of the cage being moved reached his ears, and Keith thought it was a shame that he couldn't witness Shiro's surprised face for himself this year.

"Keith, how in the world…?" he said, and Keith scooted down to the other side of the bed to get out of the direct light from the closet. Shiro came back and settled the cage in the spot Keith had just occupied.

It was easier to see now that the harsh glow wasn't cutting into his eyes, and Keith reveled in the look of astonishment on Shiro's face as he grinned down at his new lovebirds, who were whistling louder now that they were out of that stuffy closet.

"Where did you get these? We've been searching for years, and no one ever had any."

Keith twisted on the bed so he could bring one leg up to rest. "I've been putting out calls all year asking breeders to call me back if they ever found any of these particular lovebirds, and last month, I finally got a call back. Some people in Michigan were getting a shipment in, and these little babies were a part of it. Of course, they're not babies anymore, that's why I had to wait until the other day to pick them up."

Shiro tossed wide eyes on Keith. "You drove all the way to Michigan? That's like a three hour drive."

"Six hours round trip," Keith said, a little salty, remembering the torture that was the classical music ride. "Hunk came with me. We'd just gotten back when you came in the other day and heard Curtis squawking at me. He thought I was you and got agitated when you didn't show up."

Shiro laughed as he remembered. "I think you might have been teasing him a bit."

"I wasn't! He's just jealous, I swear."

The lovebirds danced around each other, whistling loudly now, and Shiro bent down to his knees to interact with them. "Hey, there, little ones. How are you? I'm sorry Keith put you in that dark closet for so long, but it's okay now. Daddy Shiro will take good care of you."

Keith scoffed. "Excuse you, I took damn good care of them. I fed them everyday, I made sure they had water. And did you not see the bright fucking light that blinded me when you opened the door?"

Shiro laughed and scooted over on his knees to sit between Keith's legs. He pulled Keith's bent leg down to the ground and held his hands on Keith's thighs as he grinned up at him, and Keith couldn't be mad. He couldn't even pretend to be mad.

"You took very good care of them," Shiro said honestly. Then, he leaned up and shoved his face into Keith's, smacking his lips against Keith's entire face in quick, wet kisses, a playful string of I love you's being pressed against his clammy skin.

"Ugh, Shiro, quit it!" Keith said, pressing against Shiro's chest weakly, but he was laughing, the tickling sensation of Shiro's lips peppering his face taking his breath away with laughter. "You're gonna get yourself sick!"

"Don't care," Shiro said, kissing all over his cheeks and forehead and mouth. "I love you too much. You're too sweet to me."

Keith giggled as Shiro made such a production of the kisses, and once Shiro pressed one more lingering kiss to his mouth, really uncaring that he was probably going to be sick for Christmas now, he pulled away and sat back on his heels.

The love in Shiro's gaze was overwhelming, spilling out of his eyes and lips and expression and just everywhere and melting down into Keith's entire being wholly. Keith had never felt so warm from just one look. He didn't think anyone else could ever make him feel this way for the rest of his life, either.

The humor in the room slowly dwindled away the longer they stared at each other, Shiro's gaze getting more and more determined by the second. Keith was feeling a bit better now, his mind capable enough to recognize that a lot was going on in Shiro's mind at the moment.

"Shiro—"

"Come with me," Shiro rushed, wasting no time in scooping Keith back up into his arms, who gave an indignant squeak, and back into the living room.

"What about the birds?" Keith said as Shiro set Keith back onto the couch so delicately, as if he were something precious.

"They'll be fine. Just give me one second," Shiro said distractedly as he whooshed from the living room and through the hallway into one of the rooms in the back.

Keith's mind was a whirlwind, both physically and metaphorically. All that quick motion had made him a little dizzy, and he had to lean forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he took his face into his hands.

What in the hell was Shiro's deal? He'd been acting a little strange all evening, but it all just caught up to Keith right now as Shiro bustled around in the back doing who knew what the fuck.

He was fairly confident that Shiro had gotten him those concert tickets, but that didn't explain why Shiro was so intense, so nervous. Maybe Hunk had been wrong? Maybe there were no tickets. But if they weren't tickets, then that meant that Keith had won yet again because nothing could top the rarest lovebirds in the country; Keith couldn't think of a single thing.

He was so far in his dizzying head that he hadn't heard Shiro come back into the room, but he lifted his head when he felt a warm touch on his knee.

Keith's heart just about stopped.

Shiro was knelt down in front of him again, only this time he was toying nervously with a little red velvet box—and he was down on one knee.

The soft golden lights from the Christmas tree and the string of bulbs lining the edges of the ceiling were the only lights on in the room, and it was soft enough to make Shiro glow like he was an angel or something, a being too pure and perfect and about to give Keith the best gift in the entire universe.

Keith could hardly breathe as Shiro took in a shaky breath and finally gazed into Keith's wide eyes.

"Keith," he said strongly, but Keith could still hear the terror tightening his voice, the enormity of the moment hitting them both in the gut and having them struggling for composure. "For four years, I've been lucky enough to call you my partner. My loving, devoted, adorable, crazy, wild, caring, supportive partner, and it was even better because you'd been my best friend for years before that. For sixteen years now, in fact; that's more than half of our lives spent playing Jedi's in my backyard and teaching each other our different hobbies and helping each other through finals week.

"The week after we first kissed, I was walking in the mall, and I passed by the open jewelry store on my way to get some better salve for the tattoos we'd gotten. But, I passed by the glass cases full of rings, and it was so magnetic. It pulled me right over to it. I gazed through all of them, gold rings, silver ones, silver-plated and white-gold, and I knew I was searching for something, but I hadn't known what.

"And then I found it. The perfect ring." Shiro held the box grasped in one hand as he flipped it open with his other hand, a beautiful black band staring back at Keith. "I know you're fond of the aesthetic, and when I saw this black band, I just knew it was for you. It was your ring, and I'd found it. Or maybe it found me.

"For four years, I held onto this ring, just waiting for the day that I would finally gather the courage to get down on one knee and ask you this simple question."

Keith's bottom lip was trembling as he reached out with shaky hands to hold them around Shiro's. Tears were falling from Keith's eyes, and he kept blinking to see past it, to memorize every detail of this moment because this was forever. This was blink and you miss it, and Keith was going to keep his eyes open until the fever forced them closed again.

"You're the most important person in my life," Shiro said, and his voice was cracking terribly as he tried to get the rest of his words out through a closed throat. "You always made me feel like I could do anything, be anything, even when I couldn't find the strength in myself. You always saw it, even when things got so dark for awhile after my accident, and so I knew it had to be in there if I just kept trying. And so I did. I tried for you until I finally found it in myself for me."

Shiro took in a shuddering breath and wiped away a few tears that had fallen from his own eyes. Keith admired the way Shiro was holding it all together, unlike Keith who was a blubbering pile of goo on the couch. Keith blamed it on the cold.

Shiro sniffled and breathed in deeply, letting it out in a shaky stream. Then he reached into the box and popped the ring out, a question in his hands and his eyes as he smiled up at Keith with that blinding smile.

"I have you to thank for the kind of person I am today, and there's no one else I'd rather share this journey with. You've already spent it with me so far, so I'm hoping you'll want to be here for the rest of it."

Shiro swallowed and straightened as possibly as he could, looking as dashing here in his pajamas as he looked in that tuxedo back in high school.

"Keith, will you please do me the honor of sharing our lives together? Will you marry me?"

Shiro sounded so unsure, as if there could possibly be anything other than one answer from Keith. Shiro was so adorable, and Shiro was all his. For now, and for the rest of their lives.

Once Keith was sure he could talk without full on crying again, he said, "Takashi… There's no one else I'd rather live my life with. It's you. It's always been you, and it will only ever be you. Of course I'll marry you."

Shiro blinked at him a few times, the smile slowly growing on his face until he was grinning at him from ear to ear, the embodiment of the sun shining down on the clearest day.

"You will?" Shiro breathed, pressing himself up further between Keith's legs until he was face to face with Keith, his face searching for what he already knew.

"Yes. Yes, Shiro, yes." Keith said, laughing wetly into Shiro's face, and Shiro was quick to launch himself at Keith, claiming Keith's mouth as hot and as fiercely as the first time he'd done it exactly four years ago.

Shiro was definitely going to get sick by the way they were swapping fluids so unabashedly, but even Keith didn't care anymore as he wrapped his arms around Shiro's neck to cling to him, the glow of happiness and Christmas warming him up from head to toe. Or maybe that was just the fever coming back to him.

When Shiro pulled away, Keith pouted and squeezed tighter, not letting go until Shiro patted his knee urgently. "Here," Shiro said, and Keith let him go with a groan.

His moodiness washed away as soon as Shiro held Keith's hand gingerly in his own as he slid the ring onto the fourth finger, the black ring seeming to mold right to him as Keith gazed at it in wonder. It was truly perfect.

"Come here," Keith said quietly as he scooted back against the cushions and held grabby hands out for Shiro. Shiro chuckled, but he crawled onto the couch beside Keith and wrapped him up in his strong arms, pulling the blanket from earlier over the both of them as they cuddled up together and watched their faux fireplace burn.

The night was warm, and as Keith turned to glance out the balcony window, he smiled. It was snowing.

"I was gonna do this at dinner tonight," Shiro said, and Keith turned back to him, lifting his finger up to trace along the scar across his nose as he spoke. "And then we didn't get to go, and I thought I missed my chance. I thought I'd have to save it for next year.

"But in the bedroom earlier, I don't know. I was so overcome with you. You surprise me every year, and you always manage the impossible. Those lovebirds are so rare, the rarest kind in the country, and they're sitting in our condo right this second." Shiro shook his head at Keith in wonder. "You're magical, Keith. And I just couldn't hold it in anymore."

Keith ran his finger just barely over Shiro's lips, puffy from Keith's intensity earlier, and it looked good on him.

"I love you, Takashi. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you."

Shiro smiled and kissed the pads of Keith's fingers. "I love you, Keith."

Shiro leaned down and kissed Keith gently, lovingly, the softest kiss of their life, and they could do that now. They could kiss with all the patience in the world now because they had the rest of their lives to spend with each other.

They'd get to keep growing up together and live out their careers, have children, raise them, watch them grow up and start their own families. And then it'd just be them again, sitting together on a porch swing somewhere having lived a long life together. They'd be happy.

And Keith couldn't wait to start this next chapter with Shiro.

Keith pulled away and pecked him one more time before he rested his head on Shiro's chest to bask in the glow of their promises.

His head was beginning to get fuzzy again, and he didn't think he could fight sleep this time, not when he'd already drained all his energy in trying to memorize every moment of the night. But the night was so vivid, and he felt it imprint on his heart like a tattoo. Keith didn't think he'd have any trouble remembering every moment from tonight.

They were quiet for awhile, Shiro's breath evening out alongside Keith's, and Keith had almost succumbed to his dreams when Shiro laughed once, startling him awake.

"So, does this mean I won the gift exchange this year?"

Keith kept his eyes closed as he chuckled. Their competition that wasn't a competition but totally was? Yeah, the winner was pretty clear this year, and Keith wouldn't have changed this night for anything.

"Yeah, Shiro. You finally won."

Hiiiii! I've been so excited to post this for like a week now because this has just been the sweetest thing and ive just been so excited to share with everyone. happy holidays, and thanks for reading!