When Mark asked Jinyoung to come home with him for the holiday, he didn't think he'd get a yes. He was overjoyed of course, but shocked nonetheless. Jinyoung agreed to spend the entire holiday with him, as in he wasn't going home to see his family like all the other students were. He reassured Mark there was nothing going on at home like that, so he can relax. Jinyoung's parents traveled, and it just so happened they would be in Northern China for the winter holiday looking for dragons or something of the like; he would just be going back to an empty home. So yes, he would love to stay with Mark.

“Even if it's not in the wizarding world? And you have to meet my family?”

“Even if it's not in the wizarding world, and I'm sure your family's nice. If not, well, I'm glad I'll have you. Don't worry too much.”


His dad had some kind of fascination with the Muggle world after a trip he took to gather information for some random article he was writing for the paper. But not long after, he convinced his mother and sister to go with him. They overall had a good time, sans Tammy whining about the loss of her wand. Soon the rest of the family, including himself, got roped into a “family vacation” to a “nice, warm city called Los Angeles, the city of Angels! Angels, Mark! Isn't that amazing?” (Mark didn't even know what an angel was.) 

The rest was history. So every once in a while, usually in winter, they would take a trip to California where it was plenty warmer than it was where they lived and stayed in a house his father bought on impulse. (They were all forced to do a little research on the Muggle world before they went, so they wouldn't seem too out of place.) The still celebrated Christmas as a family, with the tree and presents and eggnog, but without all the bulky layers they would otherwise have to wear at home. 

Just this time, Mark is bringing a guest.


“The whole no magic thing is kind of weird, and some of the stuff people do for fun is a little strange I guess, but it's not hard to get used to. And uh, we'll probably hang out outside most of the time so we won't be around my family 24/7. They're a little weird, but good people, I mean not saying they're really strange like Filch strange, but sometimes they just do weird things ..”

“Mark, calm down! If I wasn't nervous about meeting your family I would be now because you're so nervous,” Jinyoung laughs, giving Mark's hand a small squeeze. He becomes a little red at the comment, he can't help it. It's been nearly two years and yeah of course he's talked to his family about Jinyoung, but they've never met. Well, not until now anyway.

He knows they like him, from the way he gushes in his letters home. Plus he's dating a freaking prefect, that's already a plus in their eyes. He's just nervous that something bad or embarrassing or possibly both is going to happen.

“Don't worry,” Jinyoung says, placing a soft kiss on Mark's cheek. “It'll be a good break.” It calms him down a little bit. 

“Yeah...yeah,” He says more to himself to calm him down before placing the key into the door and turning it open. “Hello? Anyone home?”

Silence.

“Guess no one's home,” Jinyoung says, peeking his head inside. Mark opens the door a little wider so both of them can step in. Taking off their shoes, Mark takes Jinyoung's hand and brings him up to the second floor, where his room is. They walk past the living room, already decorated for the holidays. It's a lot of red and green, especially the tree—ribbons, ornaments, lights, everything decorated it. There are already a few wrapped gifts under it.

Mark ignores Jinyoung's giggling that he knows is at the stockings hung above the fireplace, complete with little paper cut-outs of the family members on them. Mark's has a broom stick in his hand and a sign above that says “The #1 Chaser!!” courtesy of probably his dad. He loves his dad, but really! His boyfriend didn't need to know his dad is his biggest fan.

“Aaaand, this is my room. And your room, too, I guess,” he says as he opens the door, throwing his bag down in the corner. It's a plain room, not much decorations since the family only came on holidays. A fairly decent sized bed by the window, a closet, a desk, and a few books here and there.

“Oh, no guest room to dump me in?”

“No, unfortunately. But if you want to be dumped on something..” Mark walks forward into Jinyoung's personal space until their noses touch, before he bends down and picks Jinyoung up, one arm under his knees and the other on his back. Jinyoung squeals and clutches the front of Mark more out of shock from suddenly being horizontal than anything.

“Mark!” he burst out laughing when the #1 chaser unceremoniously dumped on the bed.

“There you are, Mr. prefect, dumped onto a bed. Happy now?” Jinyoung just rolls his eyes, wide smile on his face, hesitating before he grabs the pillow and whacks Mark with it. “I don't need magic to hit you, you know!”

“Yeah, but now you can't blame “the wind blew the book into your face, it's wasn't me!” Mark raises his voice to mimic Jinyoung and gets another whack in the face for it. He's ready to retaliate, but puts the pillow down when he notices Jinyoung holding up a box.

“To Mark and Jinyoung...from your mom?” Jinyoung blinks at him, not expecting to find it under the pillow when he leaned back. “She got me something? Wait, she assumed we were going to be in the same room, that's why it's both of it right? But no, she got me something and I didn't get anything! How could I for—”

“Okay, now you need to calm down,” Mark laughs, taking one of Jinyoung's hands and entwining their fingers. “I'm sure they won't care, sometimes I forget to get them gifts too,”

“You're a horrible son,” Jinyoung interrupts.

“Whatever, I get them enough stuff other times, but anyway, they won't care. Having you here is gift enough.”

“Aren't you sweet, and you better not be lying or there'll be a lot of “strong winds” when we get back.”

“That would be unfortunate,” Mark teases, “Come on, let's see what mom got us.”

“It's not even Christmas day!” Jinyoung exclaims, scooting closer to Mark nonetheless, box placed in between them.

“Think of it more like...a welcoming gift, then!” Mark laughs and kisses away the frown on Jinyoung's face. 

When they open the box, Mark rethinks the whole trip. He thought he was safe, that maybe yeah, everything will be great and they'd all have fun together—so fun that Jinyoung would be a regular in their holiday celebration next year, and the year after that, and probably forever. But now he wishes he has his wand so he could cast these things away and never look at them again. He and his siblings avoided these items for years now and Mark can't believe now of all times is when his mom decides to whip them out.

“Oh,” Jinyoung says, lifting one of the sweaters out of the box. A knitted navy blue sweater, with a “J” in the center, and what looks like Christmas trees lined along the bottom. The one sitting under it is its twin, a red sweater with an “M” on it. “I thought you said it's warm here?”

“It...is,” Mark says. He's staring at the Christmas sweater. He prays they're not the only ones with them, otherwise his siblings would never let him live it down. The gesture is nice, and he'll make sure he thanks his mom, but he's not wearing it out.

“I guess we can wear it when we go back, right?” Mark turns to face Jinyoung so fast to make sure he's not hearing things.

“What?”

“I've never gotten something like this before, but I wouldn't want to wear it if I'm going to die from heat, you know?” he says, smiling as he runs his fingers over the material. Mark just sighs and smiles, leaning on his boyfriend. So he takes it back, maybe he'll wear it out if Jinyoung is too.

“Mom's gonna love you.”

is this a christmas fic in october? yeah