Chapter Text
"Ooh, what do you think about these?"
Chishiya sighed heavily, watching in mild dismay as Kuina darted off across the shop floor to whatever had caught her eye this time. They had been shopping for what felt like days, with Kuina enthusiastically leading the way from shop to shop while he trailed behind her, carrying her multitude of bags. Quite how he had been talked into that he wasn't sure, but then the same could be said for this entire excursion. Kuina was just annoyingly hard for him to say no to.
When he reached her, she was poring through a rack of jackets, carefully examining the different styles and colours. He cast a disinterested glance across the selection. In his honest opinion, they all looked much the same but apparently Kuina could see some distinctions that were utterly invisible to him as she separated one from the rest, pulling it off the rack.
"What do you think?" She held it up against herself for his inspection. "I either get this for Ann or we go back for those boots in the other store."
"The jacket," he said quickly. "Definitely the jacket."
Kuina arched a skeptical eyebrow. "And is that because you like the jacket, or because you can't be arsed to walk back to the other shop?"
"Because I like it," he replied indignantly, silently cursing Kuina and her stupid ability to read him like no one else could. Even Arisu couldn't see through him quite that easily, even after six months of dating.
Kuina sighed. "Come on, Shiya. I need you to take this seriously. I really want Ann to like this."
Chishiya snorted. "Please. She'll love anything you get her. The two of you are absurdly in love." He shuddered. "It's sickening."
Kuina threw her head back as she laughed. "You, Chishiya Shuntarō, are an absolute hypocrite. Have you seen you and Arisu? You two are disgustingly adorable together."
"Nonsense. Besides, Arisu deserves it."
"Well, you may be a hypocrite but you're not wrong." Kuina looked once more at the jacket before returning it to the rack. "No. We're going back for the boots."
Chishiya huffed and she giggled. "Come on. I bet you've put twice as much effort into Arisu's Christmas presents."
He frowned. "What?"
"His Christmas presents. Let me guess, you've gone ridiculously overboard and bought him something stupidly extravagant that will put us all to shame."
Chishiya swallowed, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry. "Has... Has Arisu got me something?"
Kuina paused, turning back to face him. "Of course he has. It's really sweet actually. He wanted to run the idea past me and you're going to love-" She cut herself off, seeing the look on his face, and groaned. "Don't tell me you forgot, Shiya. He's your boyfriend. How could you forget him when you were buying presents?"
He shook his head. "Of course I didn't forget him. I just didn't think... I mean, Christmas has never really been a thing for me."
Kuina's brow furrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged, mildly uncomfortable as he always was when talking about his upbringing in any great detail. "Well, it wasn't as if my parents ever paid any attention to it. Not because we celebrated other holidays or anything like that. We just never really celebrated holidays in general. They usually said they were too busy and just worked like it was a regular day, and then I suppose I've done the same since I started work. It wasn't as if I had anyone to spend it with so..."
"So you've never done anything for Christmas? Or any holiday? Not even when you were a child?" He shook his head and her eyes widened. "Please tell me your parents at least left you a present for when they abandoned you to go and work all day."
Again, he shook his head. "I wouldn't say I was abandoned. I mean, there was usually a nanny so I wasn't completely-"
He was cut off by Kuina throwing her arms around him with surprising force, nearly dropping the shopping bags in his surprise.
"Someday," she muttered fiercely against his shoulder. "I'm going to meet your parents and I'm going to kick their asses for how they treated you."
"I wouldn't do that," he said softly, awkwardly raising his arms to return the hug even with the bags he was still holding. "Knowing them, they would definitely have you arrested before you could explain yourself, but I appreciate the sentiment."
"I'll take the arrest. It would be worth it." She squeezed him once more before pulling away, smiling gently at him in a way that would probably make him feel incredibly patronised from anyone else but he accepted from her. "Right. So, boots and then we'll go shopping for Arisu. You've still got time to get him something. It'll be fine."
Chishiya nodded. "Okay. If you say so."
He gradually relaxed again as they headed back for Ann's present, losing himself in Kuina's mindless chatter and their usual bickering. Like she had said, it would be fine. Arisu would never need to know he had messed up. After all, how hard could it be to find the perfect gift for his wonderful boyfriend?
***
Apparently, finding the perfect gift could be almost impossible. Kuina had tried to convince him that he was never going to get anywhere if his standards remained so unreasonably high, but he disagreed. Arisu deserved the best and that was what he was going to get for him. Unfortunately, this approach had meant the shops' closing time had rolled around and he was as yet to purchase a single item.
He'd walked back into their apartment later than he'd planned to find Arisu putting the finishing touches to a delicious smelling soup he'd cooked from scratch. He'd gotten very into cooking as a hobby recently, partially, he liked to joke, because Chishiya was so utterly hopeless at it, and he was becoming very good. He'd greeted Chishiya with a wide smile and a kiss, and he'd tried not to feel guilty that his boyfriend was so caring when he hadn't even thought to buy him a Christmas present.
Now, meal finished, they were relaxing on the sofa, with Arisu watching some show on Netflix and Chishiya lying with his head in his lap, texting Kuina to brainstorm gift ideas.
Kuina: I still don't understand why you can't just get him a video game
Chishiya: I don't know which one he would want and I can't ask him without making it obvious. I don't want to get him just anything, it needs to be right.
Kuina: do you think you might be overthinking this a bit?
Chishiya: No.
Kuina: ok, let me rephrase that.
Kuina: you're overthinking this
Kuina: calm down before you drive yourself crazy
Chishiya: I am calm. I just want it to be perfect for him.
Kuina: objectively that's adorable but please believe me when I say he'll love literally anything if it was you that gave it to him
Kuina: he'd probably still be happy if you didn't get him anything and he just got to spend the day with you
Kuina: although I probably wouldn't put that to the test
Chishiya: You're not helping. Aimless positivity isn't getting me a present.
Kuina: you're impossible
Kuina: ok I'll think tonight and text you tomorrow
Kuina: try to think about something else for a bit. love you
Chishiya sighed, putting his phone to one side. Not only had Kuina failed to provide a solution to his dilemma, he now had another problem to deal with; he hadn't even thought about what would happen on the day itself.
"Hey, Ryo?"
Arisu glanced down at him. "Shun?"
Chishiya hesitated for a second. "What do you usually do for Christmas?"
Arisu blinked, seemingly taken aback by the question, before he smiled. "Well, when I was a kid I'd spend it with dad and Hajime and mum before she... After that it was just the three of us, but for the last few years Karube, Chota and I used to spend it together. We'd get takeout and swap gifts and..."
He trailed off, his smile dimming, and Chishiya felt a lurch of guilt. He pushed himself upright, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and letting him bury his face in his shoulder.
"Sorry, Ryo," he murmured as Arisu took a deep, shuddering breath. "I should have thought..."
Arisu sniffed, pulling back so he could look at Chishiya. "It's okay. It's not your fault. I just hadn't really thought about it and... I miss them." He sniffed again, wiping his face with his hand before sitting back, pulling Chishiya to lean against him. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be alone for the holiday, is it? Not that I'm saying you're replacing them, of course. I could never... It'll be different, but it'll still be special."
"Of course," Chishiya said, just a beat too late. "Special."
Arisu smiled softly at him, lacing their fingers together in Chishiya's lap. "I can't wait for you to see your present. I really hope you love it as much as I think you will."
He smiled back, trying to ignore the slightly queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked at his boyfriend's bright, hopeful face and thought of the twelve hour shift he had already agreed to work like he usually did on Christmas Eve.
First thing tomorrow, he resolved, he would call work and beg as shamelessly as he had to and after that he needed to call Kuina. This was an urgent situation and required backup. He may never have paid attention to Christmas but it seemed to matter to Arisu, so there was only one thing for it.
In the space of a week, Chishiya was going to organise a perfect Christmas for his boyfriend.
If only he had the first clue where to start.