Chanyeol stares at the phone in his hand until the call disconnects, leaving the screen black. The TV in the background is playing something or another, but he’s not paying attention anymore, mind whirring quickly as he tries to process what just happened. It’s Christmas, the one time of the year where he might be able to spend time with his family, and his parents aren’t going to be home. His parents are going on a Christmas vacation. Without him. Lifelessly, he flop back onto the couch, still staring at the phone in his hands. This was not the feeling he’d been hoping to have after getting off the phone with his parents. He’d expected them to be excited, to already have plans made and presents under the tree. He’d expected his mother to cry out of happiness. He’d expected them to tell him to hurry and come. He had not expected… this.

“Chanyeol. Hello, earth to Chanyeol.” He snaps his head up so fast it hurts his neck, and he ends up laying in a fatal position, whimpering and clutching the back of his neck in pain. Above him, someone sighs loudly. “How do you always manage to do things like this.” The voice gets closer as the person speaks, and when Chanyeol opens his eyes, he’s eye to eye with Kyungsoo. Sheepishly, he smiles at the smaller man, trying not to wince to much when his neck twinges at the action.

“Hey, Kyungsoo. What brings you here?” Kyungsoo looks unimpressed, cocking an eyebrow as he rests his elbows on the couch in front of Chanyeol’s face.

“We both live in this dorm. In case you somehow managed to forget,” Kyungsoo drawls, eyes searching Chanyeol’s face in a way that makes Chanyeol want to shrink away. “Now, why exactly are you moping on the couch when just minutes ago I had to throw a sock at you to get you to stop talking about how excited for Christmas you are?” The smile that had made its way onto Chanyeol’s face falters and drops at the mention of the holiday, and the taller man misses the way Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows, because he moves his gaze to the floor.

“I’m not going to be able to go home for Christmas this year. My parents are going on a vacation. On Christmas. Without me.” Chanyeol puts on his best pout and looks back at Kyungsoo, trying his best to look like an abandoned puppy (and succeeding). “I’m going to have to stay here, by myself. All alone. On Christmas!”

“You’re so dramatic,” Chanyeol whines and lazily swipes at Kyungsoo’s arm, not even trying to land a hit

“Of course I’m dramatic. Everyone else gets to go home for the holidays. Most of them have already left for home. Even Yixing is going to China, Kyungsoo. I don’t want to spend Christmas all alone in this dorm-”

“You won’t be spending it all alone,” Kyungsoo interrupts, startling Chanyeol into almost falling off the couch.

“What?” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes so hard Chanyeol wonders if he can see his own brain for a moment.

“I’m not going home for Christmas either this year. Which means we’ll both be here, so neither of us are actually spending Christmas alone.” Chanyeol stares at Kyungsoo for a moment before his face breaks into a huge smile and he rolls off the couch and onto Kyungsoo, earning him a shout and half-hearted slap on the shoulder.

“We’ll make this Christmas good together then. It’ll be great, since we’ll be together.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes again, but there’s a slight flush on his cheeks and he can’t help the smile that splits across his face as he flicks Chanyeol’s forehead for good measure. Somewhere behind them, Jongdae fake gags and tells them to get a room, but his voice goes unheard as Chanyeol leans down to press their foreheads together.

-

Kyungsoo should have known to knock on wood after Chanyeol’s declaration of having a good Christmas despite everything that was happening. Whatever gods were out there must have been listening in on him when he made his statement and decided to prove him wrong, and Kyungsoo has to wonder why he had to be included in the mix. It’s not like it’s bad being alone together, but Kyungsoo still feels slightly awkward about the new relationship budding between them and being alone in the dorm with Chanyeol, who doesn’t understand personal space, is a little daunting. It doesn’t help that everything goes wrong.

Everything is relatively fine until Christmas morning. Kyungsoo wakes up early, which isn’t strange, but he wakes up to a strange coldness in his bones. It takes him less than a minute to realize that he can’t hear the heater, and a few more seconds to realize he can’t feel his fingers. Fifteen minutes later, he’s hanging up the phone in the small kitchen and rubbing his arms, informing Chanyeol of why the taller man had to put on two sweaters just to make it out of his bed: the power in the building had gone out.

“Wow,” Chanyeol rasps, voice still waking up. “Perfect timing. Did they say when they’ll be able to come out and fix it?” Kyungsoo curls his toes inside the three pairs of fuzzy socks he’d never thought he’d actually end up using.

“They said they’ll be out here as soon as they can be, but apparently it’s not just us it’s affecting so they’re super booked. They said the power might not come on again until tonight.” Chanyeol lets out a pathetic sound and slumps over the table, yelping and jumping away as soon as the cold surface touches the sliver of his stomach that his sweaters ride up to expose.

“That’s not fair,” he whines, opting to slump over Kyungsoo’s shoulders instead. “It’s Christmas. Nobody deserves to be cold on Christmas.”

“Being cold is bad in general,” Kyungsoo points out, earning him an unamused glare.

“Fine, it’s Christmas, and nobody deserves to be cold in general.” Sighing, Kyungsoo shakes his shoulders to make Chanyeol stop holding onto him and walks over to the sink, turning on the water. After a moment of running it, he sticks his fingers under the stream.

“Well, it looks like we still have warm water. So we can take showers and not freeze to death.” With a twist of his wrist, Kyungsoo turns off the water and shifts to look at a yawning Chanyeol.

“It’s too early and cold to be awake. Let’s go back to sleep.”

“Our beds are freezing, how are we going to be able to fall asleep again?” Chanyeol grins widely and grabs Kyungsoo’s wrist.

“We’ll just gather up all the blankets and sleep in the same bed like we have been doing. Now come on. It’s too cold for you to stay up and do anything.” Kyungsoo wants to argue, as is his automatic response, but Chanyeol’s hand is warm and the air around them is so, so cold. He looks at the floor, hoping Chanyeol won’t notice the redness creeping into his cheeks.

“Fine. You have to gather the blankets though.”

When Kyungsoo wakes up again, he’s warm and confused. It takes him a moment to remember where he is: Chanyeol’s bed, with blankets piled on top of him, Chanyeol’s arms wrapped around his waist, and his face buried in Chanyeol’s chest. His first reaction is to pull away, but his action just causes Chanyeol to shift and pull him closer, obviously still asleep. Kyungsoo can feel his face getting hot again, but there’s a side of him, a very large and stubborn side, that keeps whispering that this is everything that he’s been wanting for months, years, even, so he should just stay there until Chanyeol wakes up. He’s in the middle of letting that voice win, burrowing further into the blankets to avoid the freezing temperatures outside their bundle, when Chanyeol stirs. Kyungsoo freezes when he hears Chanyeol groan softly and feels his muscles move as he stretches out.

“Kyungsoo?” The taller man shifts a bit so that he can look down at him. “See, I told you it would be warmer like this.” Kyungsoo narrows his eyes up at the taller man, wondering how anyone can smile so wide only seconds after waking up.

“Okay, you win. But we have to get up eventually.” Much to Kyungsoo’s (secret) displeasure, Chanyeol removes his arms from around his waist and stretches them over his head, closing his eyes and scrunching up his face in a cute way that makes Kyungsoo wish he had his phone handy, so he could snap a picture.

“True, since it’s Christmas,” Chanyeol sighs and opens his eyes again, quickly drawing his hands back into the warmth of the blanket. “Too bad we aren’t at my parent’s house; we could take a warm bath there.” Kyungsoo almost chokes but catches himself just in time to not make a fool out of himself.

“What-” he sputters, propping himself up on his elbow to look at Chanyeol incredulously.

“What?” Chanyeol’s face is the picture of innocence as he speaks, but there’s something behind his eyes that Kyungsoo doesn’t want to recognize. “They have a really big tub. We could both fit in it, and it would chase away some of the cold.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, trying to keep his face passive.

“Well, we aren’t at your parent’s house. So now what?” Chanyeol huffs and sits up, keeping the blankets secure around his figure, although the cold air manages to begin to seep in through the new openings in their blanket pile.

“Well, I guess we can bundle up and move all the blankets into the main room. That way we can open presents and watch a movie on one of our laptops or something,” the taller man’s face suddenly lights up again. “We can build a fort! Let’s build a fort, Kyungsoo!” There isn’t even a retort in Kyungsoo’s mind for him to use, and he laughs despite himself, sitting up and shoving Chanyeol’s shoulder.

“That’s so childish. Let’s do it.”

Ten minutes and many sweaters later, all of the blankets and pillows in the dorm have been confiscated and dumped around the couch in the main room. Chanyeol starts working right away, leaving Kyungsoo to carry the rest of the blankets and pillows on his own as the other man begins to pull chairs to get everything where he wants it. Dumping the rest of the materials on the couch, Kyungsoo tries not to shiver too much and peers past one of the blankets Chanyeol has already hung up. Chanyeol is concentrating, tongue poked a bit out of his mouth endearingly as he focuses on tying one blanket to another. Kyungsoo doesn’t want to interrupt him, so he waits until Chanyeol holds up the connected blankets in triumph to speak.

“Chanyeol, what do you want for Christmas dinner?” Chanyeol jumps a bit and jerks his head up to look at the other man.

“Oh, . I forgot about that. Will the stove work without the power on?” Kyungsoo looks over at the kitchen and shrugs after looking the stove over.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” he mutters, walking over to the kitchen and eying the knobs for a moment before turning one. Nothing happens, and he sort of wants to sob, but he keeps it in, heaving a sigh instead. “I guess we’ll just have to eat dry snacks until they manage to get here and turn the power back on. We can always eat something late tonight.” Kyungsoo can’t see him, but he knows Chanyeol is nodding his head.

“It’ll be okay. We can finish this fort and then eat cereal and open presents,” his head pokes up over the couch. “Actually, bring over all the snacks. And maybe some waters? So we don’t have to get out of this fort once it’s warm and toasty.” It’s not a bad idea, and Kyungsoo turns immediately to raid the cabinets, gathering every appealing snack he lays eyes on. His arms are full by the time he waddles back to the couch and dumps them inside the already-forming fort. After stepping back to admire Chanyeol’s quick work, he quickly jogs back into the kitchen to grab a couple bottles of water and rushes back, quickly sitting down and pulling a blanket over himself.

“Wow, you work fast,” he marvels quietly, looking around at the work Chanyeol has done already. He gets a quick thumbs-up in return.

“I’ve made a lot of these in my time!” Kyungsoo snorts at that. “The pillows and blankets on the floor are for us to use to warm up, you can arrange them while I finish the actual fort part.” There’s no point in arguing, and quite frankly, Kyungsoo wants the fort to be finished already, so he shoves the blanket off his legs (albeit reluctantly) and crawls into the mix. It doesn’t take him long to line up the pillows and blankets so that the inside of the fort looks sort of like beds he’s seen on the internet: comfortable and, most importantly, warm. Chanyeol is still finishing up the outside, so Kyungsoo sets out the snacks and drinks and crawls under the warm blankets again, taking the time to check his slowly dying phone. He hopes the power will be back on before he needs a charger.

He's interrupted from his thoughts when there’s a faint shout of “done” from the outside of the fort and, seconds later, Chanyeol is crawling in through the small entrance, their presents to each other in hand. He quickly puts them down and burrows under the covers beside the other, wrapping his arms around Kyungsoo’s smaller frame and holding him tightly as he shivers.

“It’s so cold out there!” He complains, resting his chin on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “I almost froze my off making this thing and getting your present in here. Actually, since I might die of frostbite soon, you should just open your present now, before I pass away.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes so hard it hurts a bit, but he reaches over and picks up the small box, a soft smile crawling its way onto his lips as he looks down at it.

“You open yours too, drama king,” he picks up the slightly larger box with his free hand and places it on Chanyeol’s lap, (unfortunately) forcing Chanyeol to move his arms from around him so he can pick it up. “On the count of three, we open together.” Chanyeol nods and begins the countdown, immediately digging in right after the last number leaves Kyungsoo’s mouth. Kyungsoo is a bit slower about it, taking the time to carefully unwrap it and take out the contents, staring open-mouthed when he sees what the present is.

“Do you like it? I got us matching bracelets. So I can always be with you and you can always be with me.” Chanyeol is smiling again, but when is he not, and Kyungsoo basically tackles him to the floor in a tight hug, hoping it will convey all the feelings inside better than he could with words.

“I love it,” he whispers after a moment, moving his head to look up at Chanyeol. “My present wasn’t near as thoughtful though.” Chanyeol makes a loud sound of protest.

“I’ve been wanting these headphones for months, Kyungsoo, of course it’s thoughtful. Tomorrow we can go to the studio and I can use them!” Kyungsoo sits back up and laughs, but intertwines their fingers as he lets his arms fall.

“Who goes to the studio the day after Christmas?”

“We do, now,” Chanyeol beams as he reaches for a rather large bag of chips. “Now, I have my laptop here somewhere so let’s eat and watch movies until the thing either dies or the power comes back on. And maybe I’ll get a few kisses out of you too.” Kyungsoo’s face splits into a smile and he presses a small kiss to Chanyeol’s lips, happy with the surprised reaction he gets.

“Sounds like a plan.”