Christmas bonus part three

The next morning everyone arrived at the Kim Lu residence again. The kids all wore their pajamas, because that was comfortable and they would spent much of the day there, opening their presents and playing with each other and their new toys. Unfortunately, Joonmyun had told his kids early in the morning that he wouldn't make it, because he had to head to the company to work. Amber was of course pretty upset with him, and so was Minki. But there was nothing he could do about it. Some families had arrived earlier than others, and Youngbae and Ji Yong hadn't even woken up when the Park family (including Jimin) arrived, as the first family. Taeyeon, Amber and Minki also came pretty early, just when Chanhee, Aron, Sohee and Chorong were eating breakfast. Kim Do family were the next ones to arrive and Jonghyun immediately found Minki, while Jongdae took a seat in an armchair.

The rest were in the dining room or living room when Luna walked into the kitchen where Minseok was standing. She was wearing her purple night gown and pink slippers, which she had brought, and her feet were slightly dragging across the floor - not in a sad way, though, just the way that her slippers were slightly too big for her feet. Minseok looked at her with a kind smile, when she seemed like there was something she wanted to ask him.

"Uncle Minseok, do you have a candle I can borrow?" she asked him. "Sorry, we didn't have any at home..."

"Um, I think Lu Han knows where they are," he said, just as Lu Han stepped inside the kitchen. "Han, where are the candles? Can you show Luna, please?"

"Oh, sure!" Lu Han said with a smile and gestured for Luna to follow him to the hallway, where he searched in a closet for some seconds before exclaiming an "aah!" and took out a thick red candle, which he handed to his niece. Luna took it with a smile.

"Thank you, uncle Lu Han," she said and went to the living room where she placed it by the window sill. She knelt down to the floor when she had lit it, and bowed her head. Some minutes went by, her hands folded in front of her chest, and her body silently started trembling.

Running into the living room, Namjoo stopped abruptly by her appa, when she noticed her older cousin with her head bowed by the window.

"What is Luna unnie doing?" Namjoo asked Jongdae, and Jongdae pulled her closer to his knees, as he was sitting in the armchair.

"She's praying," her appa answered.

"Why is she crying?" the next question sounded. Jongdae sighed inaudible with a little melancholic smile on his lips.

"You know how uncle Chanyeol and aunt Baekhyun aren't Luna's real parents, right?" Jongdae began.

"You and papa aren't my real parents either," Namjoo said as innocently as she could, but a teasing glint in her eyes was hard to miss. Jongdae looked at her with a teasingly stern look.

"You know that's not what I meant, young lady," he said and Namjoo grinned as he tickled her tummy.

"Stop it, it's tickling! Appa! Hahaha! I know! I'm sorry!" she laughed and Jongdae finally caved with her apology.

"Now, I know me and papa may not be you and your brother's biological parents, but you are ours on the papers. You are ours officially - and mentally. Aunt Baekhyun and uncle Chanyeol aren't Luna's parents on the papers. They haven't adopted her," Jongdae further said, with Namjoo now resting in his lap.

"I know. But why is she praying then?" Namjoo asked a little impatient, really just wanting an answer on her previous question.

"I'm getting to that," her appa replied, poking her stomach a few times to make her laugh again. "Nonetheless, Luna is very much part of our family and we all love her very much, and she cares about us, too. Right?" he asked, making sure Namjoo was still listening. She nodded. "On this day, four years ago, Luna's parents died tragically in a car accident. Ever since then, on this day, she's always remembered to pray for her parents with a lit candle."

"Is she sad?" Namjoo asked with a small pout, leaning against her appa's chest, still with her gaze at Luna's trembling back.

"I can imagine that she's still sad, yes. But not so much anymore, since she has all these people around her who care about her and love her unconditionally. But I'm sure Luna always has her parents on her mind whenever she smiles or cries. But she's not just sad. She's just... keeping her parents' memory with her."

Namjoo nodded, trying to understand what her older cousin must go through.

"I would," she said quietly, almost as if she was talking to herself.

"You would what, sweetie?"

"I would be sad. If you or papa or Jonghyunnie died. I think I would cry all the time."

Jongdae gave her a melancholic smile, kissing his daughter's head, before Namjoo climbed down to the floor, quietly making her way over to Luna who was keeping her head bowed and her back faced against the living room. Jongdae could see Luna flinch slightly when Namjoo walked in front of her, and without saying a word sat down, giving Luna the biggest hug she could manage. He smiled, imagining Luna smiling slightly too, when she wrapped her arms around Namjoo as well, and buried her face in her hair.

An hour later everyone had arrived - of course with the exception of Joonmyun. They met around the Christmas tree to where the presents were put, some sat in chairs or on the couch, and some were seated on the floor. It was time to exchange gifts.

All the families had bought presents for all the kids, so there was quite a long time ahead of them with unwrapping presents. But it was alright. The kids were happy to receive presents and the parents were happy giving them and seeing the pleased and excited faces of their nieces and nephews. Minseok and Lu Han had also made coffee and tea and there were still some of Yixing's cookies left. So they were set. Everyone received something they were happy about. For example, Jungkook got a black and red striped knitted sweater, which he demanded to wear immediately; he literally stripped off his shirt with glittering eyes to put it on as soon as possible, before thanking his uncles for the present and neither Jonghyun nor Kibum managed to prevent him to. Minseok and Lu Han just grinned, happy to see he loved their present - although, Kibum noticed, that it was slightly too big for him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get Jungkook to take it off. The other kids - and adults - also got nice presents, both toys and clothes, and were all very happy at the end of the exchange.

After the gift exchange, the kids wanted to play. The parents told them to stay in the living room - without any explanation given - so that's what they did. Taehyung went over to Minki.

"Minki?" he said. Minki turned and looked at him questioningly. "I just wanted to say... sorry for yesterday," when Minki just gave him a confused look, he added, "at the mistletoe..." Minki widened his eyes with an 'oh'-expression.

"It's okay, Tae," he said and gave his cousin a smile. "I'm not mad." Taehyung smiled and gave his cousin a hug; it had bothered him ever since yesterday and he just had to tell him.

Suddenly it knocked on the door and Minseok went out to open.

"Hey, kids." He walked back into the living room and gained everyone's attention. "See who it is!" He motioned for someone to come closer and everyone's facial expression changed immediately; big smiles being the most dominant ones, although some sported a rather disbelieving or skeptical expression, too.

"Santa Clause!" Taehyung exclaimed and ran towards the big red coated man, jumping to his arms.

"Ho ho ho!" the stranger laughed, catching the boy. The parents all smiled, when Junhong and Namjoo also ran towards him and hugged him. "Hi kids!" Santa Clause's voice was lighter than expected, but nonetheless the kids beamed at him. "How are you?" He noticed all the gift wrappers and gifts around the room. "Did you get nice presents already?" Taehyung nodded eagerly and Lu Han brought a chair for Santa Clause to sit on. "Thank you," he said to Lu Han and sat down with Taehyung on his lap.

"Is that really Santa Clause?" Jonghyun asked his appa with a whisper.

"Sure looks like it, doesn't it?" Jongdae whispered back, looking from his son's face to 'Santa Clause' and back, with a smile. Jonghyun's lips slowly turned into an excited smile as he stared at Santa Clause. Jongdae put a hand on his son's back and gently pushed him forward. "You can go talk to him, if you want, Jonghyun." Jonghyun looked hesitantly at his appa, but Jongdae just nodded reassuringly at him with a smile, and when Jonghyun felt convinced and assured he smiled back and stepped closer to the man surrounded by several of his other cousins.

Meanwhile Aron was sitting on the floor with the older cousins. When the red coated and long bearded man stepped inside the living room, his eyes had slightly grown big and his lips had parted into a slightly taken aback but excited expression. He couldn't take his eyes from the stranger, and didn't notice his parents glancing towards him and smiling at each other. As they knew, Aron had been afraid of Santa Clause when he was younger; the first time Yi Fan dressed up as Santa Clause Aron had broken down crying and hid in Yixing's arms at the age of two, and ever since then, they hadn't dressed up or pressured him into believing in the Christmas present-giving phenomenon. But then a few days back, he had hesitantly asked his parents, if Santa Clause would know where to leave him his presents, as he wasn't going to spend Christmas in their own home, not even their own country. Of course they had replied that Santa Clause would without a doubt make sure that he received his presents, whether it would be in China or Korea. And they were right; the expression on Aron's face was priceless and his parents were happy that their boy was excited – that he even believed in his age, despite his same aged cousins who looked rather doubtful at the man who had stepped inside.

Amber eyed Aron suspiciously and nudged Luna's side to make her aware of him, too. They slightly grinned at each other, but decided that it would be rather cruel if they made fun of him - they actually found it rather cute that their cousin believed in Santa.

Byunghun on the other hand looked at the red coated man, whom his brother had just run closer to, with a raised eyebrow, being very much against 'Santa Clause' and people dressing up as someone who didn't exist. "Oh my God, do people really believe..." Luna gave him an elbow in his side and he groaned in pain. "Hey!" he exclaimed but Luna just motioned silently towards Aron, who looked at Santa Clause for the last time before slowly turning an innocent and questioning face towards Byunghun. Byunghun raised an eyebrow. "Do you really believe in... Stop it!" he exclaimed, when Luna slapped his arm.

"No, you stop it!" she argued. Byunghun clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything. Aron's face turned slightly sad and he looked at the floor.

"Someone actually believes in Santa Clause, Byunghun, don't sound so petty," Amber said. Byunghun shot her a glare.

"It's nice," Seokjin in, and they looked at him, while he looked at his brother who was being pushed forward by his appa. "It's nice to believe such things... like Santa Clause and the Easter bunny and such..." He said it in a way that made it sound like he tried to convince himself, but the others didn't say anything against it. "I wish that I believed in it..." he mumbled, while keeping his eyes on his younger brother who was hesitantly - and reluctantly - walking towards the man in red, while looking back at his appa from time to time; Minho just smiled and made hand motions suggesting him to keep going. Seokjin and Minhyun had never actually believed in Santa Clause. Why would a fat man with a red coat travel from house to house to leave presents to kids that were asleep - even move down the chimney? How could a stranger know exactly what he wanted for Christmas? Back at the orphanage all the kids received one present each Christmas, supposedly from Santa Clause, but it was always the men and women working there that handed it out to each child, so not much magic to look for there. And each Christmas Seokjin received - don't get him wrong, it was nice gifts - nothing he really wished for. So what's the point of a 'magic' man getting all the kids in the world their most wished presents, when he never actually saw it in action?

But then he and Minhyun were placed in Jinki and Minho's house. And it was a lovely home. A lovely family. But at Christmas he and Minhyun soon found out that Minho really really wanted them to believe in Santa Clause and all his elves and stuff. So they - in fear of getting tossed to the streets - faked it. They faked believing in Santa and the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny etc. Because they loved Jinki and Minho - despite their differences. But as Seokjin grew older, he found that it was okay if he didn't 'believe' in all those fairytales anymore. Minhyun on the other hand, should still believe; for Minho's sake.

Seokjin suppressed a sigh. He looked at Minhyun who was now sitting on 'Santa's' knee, a doubtful expression on his face. But when both of them looked at the smiling and encouraging face of their appa, it was definitely worth it. Minhyun sent a grin his parents' way.

Jinki, who was sitting by Minho's side and had witnessed everything, smiled, too. As the husband of Minho and the loving papa of their children for several years, he had witnessed it all. He knew his children inside out and Minho, too. He knew every facial expression of theirs. Even years back when they held their first Christmas together as a four-member family, he had noticed the look Seokjin had pulled when Minho started talking about the elves and Santa Clause. Minhyun, of course, was only a little more than a year back then and would probably had believed in anything they told him or showed him, but as he grew older Jinki noticed how he also didn't seem to be very fond of the so called 'Santa Clause'. Nonetheless, both children never uttered a word against their appa's stories and gladly pretended to be as excited as him, when Santa was going to visit them in the middle of the night to leave presents and to eat their cookies. Jinki had stood by the sideline in all that time. He didn't want to crush his husband's dreams, but he knew that their kids didn't seem to want that either. As they'd pretended for so long he knew how much they must love him, since they wanted to do anything to make him happy. Jinki would always remember that.

"So, what do you wish for, little boy?" 'Santa' asked Minhyun with a big smile.

Minhyun hesitated. "A magic set..." he mumbled.

"Mmh? A magic set?" Santa repeated and pretended to consider something for a moment. "Well, should we see what I have in my sack?" He reached for the sack, Minho and Jinki sending each other quick and anticipating smiles, while Minhyun didn't know what to set his hopes for and just looked as 'Santa' took out a square wrapped gift for him. "Here you go, son!" The stranger handed him the gift with a friendly smile and Minhyun grabbed it. "Wrap it up," the man said, when Minhyun hesitated. He sighed. Even though Taehyung had gotten a big sized lion plushy - which he wanted - and Namjoo had gotten a Barbie princess - which she had talked about for so long - and Junhong's gift had consisted of a robot - which everyone knew he loved -, there was no way that this conman could have known what...

Minhyun's mouth flew open as he stared down at the black box in his hands with drawings of a wand and cards and several other magic tricks on. He looked at Santa's smiling face. "How did you...?" Minhyun mumbled in shock. Then he wrapped his arms around Santa Clause and buried his face in the big beard. "Thank you... Santa..." He smiled up at him and Santa smiled back.

"Ho ho ho! You're welcome, Minhyun!"

Minhyun climbed down from the man's knee and went over to his parents with a big smile. "See what I got!" He showed them the box and they smiled down at him, before he hurried over to his older brother to show him, too. Seokjin smiled at him, seeing the big grin on his younger brother's face. "See, hyung! I got it from... Santa," Minhyun told him, in case Seokjin hadn't followed the scene with his own eyes. Seokjin nodded.

"You're so lucky, Minnie, that's exactly what you wanted, right?" Minhyun nodded and sat down, ready to open the box. Changjo came over to him and sat beside him, a karate kid action figure in his hand.

"My hyung can do magic tricks, too," he said, looking at the various things from the box that Minhyun was examining, before looking at Byunghun. "Right, hyung?" At first Byunghun just glared at him, still a bit offended from all the hitting before, but then he nodded.

"Really, hyung?" Minhyun looked up at Byunghun in awe. "Can you show me?" he asked excited. Byunghun hesitated, then sighed.

"Okay," he said and grabbed a white handkerchief from Minhyun's new present. With all eyes on him, he showed the clothing to them - showing them that it was nothing but an ordinary handkerchief - before making a hand movement (something with covering the hand, that was holding the clothing, with the other) and it disappeared. The handkerchief was no longer present in his hands! Minhyun and Changjo and their older cousins were left amazed.

"Wow!" Minhyun gaped. Changjo nodded, his mouth open, too, but also looking slightly proud that it was his older brother and it was him that had made Byunghun show it to them. The older cousins looked both confused and stunned. Byunghun just smirked, as if what he'd done was no big deal.

Over where the big red coated man was sitting, Jungkook had just been placed on the lap by Jonghyun.

"But what should I do?" Jungkook asked his appa. Jonghyun smiled.

"Just tell him what you want for Christmas, Kookie," he answered. Santa Clause looked anticipating and interested at the boy, who just glared right back at him.

"But why?" Jungkook said, scrunching his nose.

"I will give you a present, son, if you just tell me what you want," Santa replied. Jonghyun was still standing by the side, to reassure or comfort the boy. Jungkook looked almost repelled.

"But why should I tell you what I want?"

"Ho ho ho! Because I am Santa Clause and I fulfill wishes to boys like you!" Santa replied with a slight laugh.

"But aunt Taeyeon has already given me a present." Jungkook seemed confused. "You're not the real Santa." Jungkook stretched his arm and reached out for Santa's beard, managing to pull it slightly down to reveal smooth skin and a familiar face.

"Kookie!" Jonghyun was quick and grabbed Jungkook off 'Santa's' lap before more damage could be done, while 'Santa' quickly pulled the beard back up, before any other child would notice. "Sorry," Jonghyun apologized and carried Jungkook away, telling him to be quiet and not say anything to anybody about it. Santa Clause managed to give them a smile, despite being almost caught red handed.

"Santa?" a child's voice was heard and the man turned his head to look at Minki. His heart started pounding a little faster. Had he noticed?

"Yeah, son?"

"How come you didn't visit in the night, but only came this morning?" Minki asked.

Santa sighed relieved. He didn't notice. "Well, Minki, Santa is very busy, as you know; I have to travel around the earth to give every little child a present. And I saved my favorite family for last." He smiled. "I wanted to greet you personally, and didn't want to wake you up while you were sleeping."

"Okay." Minki smiled back, taking Santa's words for good, and went back to sit beside Taehyung. Santa smiled at the child.

"Looks like my good deed here is done," he then said, noticing that he had only one gift left to give. He stood up, handed it to Jungkook with a wink and a ruffle of his hair. Jungkook nuzzled closer to his appa's chest who just snickered. Then he said bye to the adults while the kids were occupied playing with their new toys, and left out the door, leaving smiles on all the parents' faces.

"Hey, babe..." Yi Fan leaned closer to Yixing's ear to whisper. "I need to give you something." Yixing turned his face with a confused expression, but Yi Fan just gave him a little nod and stood, extending his hand for his husband to take. Yixing still looked puzzled but nonetheless took his hand in trust and followed his husband into the bedroom they had slept in last night.

"Uh Yi Fan...?" he asked hesitantly when Yi Fan closed the door behind them.

Yi Fan rolled his eyes with a slight smirk. "It's not that," he just said, reading Yixing's mind. "But I like your way of thinking, let's get back to that later on." Yi Fan winked at him teasingly, but Yixing just shook his head with a snort and a roll of his eyes. How could he not love him?

Yi Fan reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. "I uh... I have a present for you." The envelope was white and slightly crumbled, due to the fact that it had been inside Yi Fan's pocket for nobody knows how long, and it looked like nothing was in there despite a rattling sound when it was handed to Yixing. Yixing noticed how nervous and vulnerable his husband suddenly looked, as if it was back to the very first time they were alone together. As if Yi Fan was afraid his gift would be rejected or misunderstood or made fun of. Yixing smiled at him, but Yi Fan didn't notice as he was looking at the floor.

"Thank you," Yixing said and accepted the present, and Yi Fan looked up when he opened it. When the content fell out into Yixing's hand, his eyes widened and his mouth flew open in mere surprise. He looked up at his husband, expression still on his face. "Yi Fan..." he mumbled, looking back at the silver locket in his hand. He had only just viewed the outside of it, but it was beautiful with its simple and shiny embrace, not to mention that it was a surprise that Yi Fan had bought him a romantic jewelry. Not that Yi Fan wasn't romantic: he was! He was one of the most romantic people Yixing knew. He just didn't show it much - or maybe people just didn't really understand his methods... But Yixing knew that Yi Fan always had his heart in the right place. "Oh gege!" Yixing threw his arms around Yi Fan, but it didn't take long for Yi Fan to lightly push him off again.

"You haven't even opened it yet, babe," Yi Fan said. He had a cute pout on his lips, and Yixing sometimes forgot that his husband was actually older than him. Yixing smiled and put his attention back to the locket to open it. The locket consisted of two sides - obviously - and Yi Fan had put a small picture in each frame. One of the pictures were of a baby Aron, laughing right ahead at the camera; at his baba looking down at him. Yixing smiled at the picture. Then he looked at the other one. It was a picture taken on his and Yi Fan's wedding day. It had been an amazing day; sun shining and people happy. Everyone had been in tuxedo or dress. It had been beautiful.

Yi Fan stepped closer to his husband and put his arm around his shoulders. Yixing smiled up at him. "Thank you, gege." He leaned close to his husband's chest and Yi Fan smiled down at him.

"Look." Yi Fan put his hands on top of Yixing's and closed the locket to show him something on the front. He turned it around and brushed his finger over some engraved numbers.

"2019-09-05 and 2024-08-30," Yixing read aloud. "That's our wedding date and the day we adopted Aron," he said and Yi Fan nodded and turned the locket around to show some neatly engraved words. "The best is right here." When Yixing looked at Yi Fan, his eyes were watery and he looked at his husband lovingly.

"I actually put a lot of thought into the engraving..." Yi Fan mumbled, but Yixing just hugged him tightly. Yi Fan was a bit taken aback, but then hugged him back with a smile. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Yixing said back. He hugged him like he didn't want to let go and Yi Fan hugged him equally as desperate back.

Some minutes went by and then finally they broke apart.

"Can I ask if there's a special occasion for this?" Yixing asked his husband, looking at the locket in his hands.

Yi Fan smiled and stood behind Yixing, taking the locket to put it around his neck. "I just wanted to do something nice for you." He leaned down and kissed Yixing's cheek and neck, after putting the necklace around his neck. "You are the person that means the most to me, thought you should know. And Aron, too."

Back in the living room, giggles were heard and Taehyung, Jimin and Minki were sitting, whispering and pointing at someone standing in the doorway.

"Appa!" Jimin exclaimed to Jonghyun who was sitting on a chair.

"What?" Jonghyun asked, oblivious to the kid's sudden exclaim.

"Look where eomma's standing," Jimin said and pointed at Kibum standing in the doorway, talking to someone in the dining room.

"What?" Jonghyun seemed confused.

"Look where he's standing!" Jimin repeated and just kept pointing, looking at his appa with raised eyebrows, giving as much hints as he could - pointing and staring.

"What?" Jonghyun was now really confused as to what his son seemed to want him to do. Kibum of course had no idea of what was going on or that there was being talked about him.

"Appa, eomma's standing in the doorway," Chorong, who'd also noticed and had heard her younger brother, tried to help, but Jonghyun just continued his obliviousness. Kibum, on the other hand, heard his daughter mention him.

"What is it, sweetheart?" he asked Chorong with a kind smile.

Chorong rolled her eyes. "Nothing," she said, and then turned back to Jonghyun. "Appa!" she said almost desperately. Jonghyun looked really confused.

"Uncle Kibum's standing in the doorway," Aron said to Jonghyun, helping out. Jonghyun looked at him. "Look!" He pointed and Jonghyun followed his finger, just to find Kibum standing in the doorway. Kibum had gone back to his conversation with Jongin from the kitchen.

"Just go to him," Chanhee said, being impatient. Jonghyun still looked confused and a bit suspicious at all the children, who had now turned their attention to him, but nonetheless he did as told and went under the doorway to Kibum. Kibum turned his head with a smile.

"Hi," he greeted his husband, before noticing all the children's eyes on them. "What?" he grinned.

"Appa!" Jimin whined. He didn't know how to get his appa to do what he wanted him to. He didn't know what else he could do. He felt like he had given all sorts of hints. But of course his appa was oblivious to that fact.

"Just kiss." Minki on the other hand, had never wanted to sugarcoat anything; what was the point, if Jimin's parents didn't understand it anyway?

Jonghyun and Kibum furrowed their eyebrows, looking confused.

"You're standing under the mistletoe, dammit!" Youngbae exclaimed, getting pretty tired of his parents' confusion. Although he actually didn't want to witness his parents kiss, but somebody had to take action, right? And to top it all up, both his parents looked at him with a hard look, as he'd just cussed. "Whatever," he mumbled with a roll of his eyes, Ji Yong laughing at his side.

Nonetheless, his exclamation had been of much help; Jonghyun and Kibum both looked up at the green leaves, and then back down at each other, and then at all the kids who looked at them giggling, finally being able to put the pieces together. Kibum wasn't sure of what exactly he should do with all the kids staring at him like that, but he didn't manage to think his thought to an end, as he was suddenly being swept off his feet by his husband. Jonghyun had a tight grip on him, holding him close to his chest in his arms and smiling down at him. Laying there in his arms, there wasn't much Kibum could do, before Jonghyun leaned down and kissed him on his lips, sensually but quick. Jonghyun pulled him back up to a stand with a smirk. Kibum rolled his eyes, to cover up the faint blush that came to his cheeks. The kids just giggled at the scenario that Jonghyun had created.

Some minutes later all the children were huddled in the hallway putting on their big coats or snowsuits, boots, warm hats and gloves etc. And after ten minutes everyone was outside in the Kim Lu family's garden that was covered in white snow.

"Okay, we should form in two teams," Seokjin said when they were all outside and were standing in a circle. They were about to settle the rules for a snowball fight.

Ji Yong made a grimace. "Shouldn't it just be all against all?"

Amber raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit unfair? I mean considering..." She motioned towards the younger children. Ji Yong shrugged, but saw her point.

"I think two teams sound good," Luna said and then smirked towards Ji Yong and Youngbae. "All of us against the two of you."

"Ha ha. Very funny," Ji Yong mocked her and stuck out his tongue.

"How about three teams? The two of you," Chorong motioned towards Ji Yong and Youngbae, "and then the rest of us will divide in two teams. Anybody who doesn't want to play?" She looked around at all her younger cousins. Nobody said anything. "Great. Is that cool with you?" she raised a challenging brow towards her older brother and cousin. Youngbae and Ji Yong shared a look, before nodding, taking up the challenge; they were older, faster and had better abilities - they had a chance to win, right?

"So how do we divide us?" Chanhee asked, looking around at the 19 people.

"Let's say.... here!" Ji Yong said, drawing an invisible line between Byunghun and Chanhee. Suddenly they were on two different sides with Chorong, Luna and Amber, as the older kids, on Byunghun's team, and Aron, Seokjin and Sohee on Chanhee's. "Okay...." Ji Yong looked at the younger kids, considering who should be on which team. "Minki, Jonghyun, Jimin, Minhyun and Hayoung, you go on Byunghun's team and the rest is on Chanhee's team." The kids nodded.

"And when you've been hit in the chest two times, you're out, right?" Amber said and they agreed. "Good. Let's go," she said and her team followed her to the other side of the garden, except for Byunghun who stayed back, looking at Ji Yong.

"Why am I with all the girls?" He blamed, not really counting the younger kids for good.

"Does it matter, Byunghun?" Ji Yong commented and pushed him towards his team that were in the middle of making snowballs. Byunghun groaned and walked over to Chorong, Luna, Amber and the younger.

"Okay, we should be strategic," Chorong stated when Byunghun came over to the them. Amber and Luna nodded at the words. "We should eliminate Aron first."

"And Sohee unnie; she's good!" Luna added. Chorong nodded.

"Okay. I say we enclose on Aron and then Sohee. When they're out, it's only Chanhee and Seokjin left - and the kids, of course. Do you think we can handle them?" Chorong said.

"Sure! If we work together on eliminating Aron and Sohee, then afterwards it'll be easy to win over Chanhee, Seokjin and the kids!" Amber felt confident.

"Great! I'll stay back and make snowballs for you guys, and you go out to the field and throw them. Okay?" They all agreed on Chorong's words, and started collecting big amounts of snow until the game would officially start.

"What about us? We're here, too!" Minki walked over with crossed arms; he felt neglected - why shouldn't they be able to fight, too? Jonghyun, Minhyun, Jimin and Hayoung walked straight behind him.

"Um," Amber looked up at the kids from where she was crouched on the ground. "Do you want to make snowballs?" she asked. Minki shook his head.

"I want to fight!"

"Okay, let's go!" Youngbae called from the other side of the garden. He and Ji Yong had placed themselves by the tree, and Amber noticed that they both stood with snowballs in their hands.

"Can we fight, too, unnie?" Hayoung asked Amber, before the other team would agree to start the game.

Amber nodded. "Sure."

The fight began with Aron throwing a snowball straight at Amber's leg. Chorong quickly handed Amber, Luna and Byunghun some snowballs, while Byunghun instructed the other two how they should quickly sneak up behind Aron and surprise him. At first all the kids were really engaged with the game; also the younger. After a few throws of snowballs, Jonghyun started to hesitate, though. He threw the snowballs with all his might, but what if that was too hard? What if someone got hurt? Chorong noticed his hesitation and pulled him down behind the bush she'd claimed to be their territory.

"Do you want to make snowballs we provide the others with?" she asked him. He nodded with a smile and started making balls of fluffy white snow.

Jimin ran towards Changjo, his arms full of snow, and he threw it at Changjo's back with all his might. Changjo slowly turned around. But before he managed to throw snow at the laughing Jimin, Namjoo yelled, "I'll get revenge for you!" and stormed after Jimin, managing to hit his back several times with snowballs. Jimin, being very clumsy, fell down onto the white covered ground, and Namjoo settled on top of him.

"You're dead!" she exclaimed, maniacally but laughing, as she bumped snow onto his chest.

"You, too!" a girl's voice called and Namjoo turned her head to be met by Hayoung, who had prepared two snowballs; one in each hand.

"No, I'm not!" Namjoo pointed behind Hayoung, and Hayoung turned around for Changjo to throw two perfectly formed snowballs at her chest. Hayoung's mouth flew open; she'd even managed to throw several snowballs at both Chanhee and Aron, but now she was dead? Hayoung pouted. Oh well, she might as well make a snowman then. She shrugged and walked away from the 'war area' to go make a snowman.

Meanwhile her brother, Junhong, found it much more interesting to play by himself, apparently. He was crawling by the fence on all four, his eyes focusing on the ground, completely forgetting and blocking everything else out. He was looking for insects or something else that would earn his attention. Why wouldn't he? He was a cat, after all - or at least for now. Nobody seemed to mind either, that he was missing. Or maybe they just hadn't noticed it. Either way, Junhong didn't care. He had just found a stick with a funny curl!

"Waah!" Taehyung yelled while running around, smashing snow on everyone he would come across - even from his own team. But Taehyung was not on any team. At least... not what he knew of... And if he was, who cared? They were all playing weren't they? And it was so much more fun to just throw snow at everyone! Taehyung laughed, throwing snow at Namjoo, Changjo and Jimin, who seemed to be at war. When they all three glared at him, he just grinned and ran off to find someone else to throw snow at. This was fun!

Aron was pushed to the ground. He blinked and looked up at Luna who was sitting on top of him.

"How are you doing down there? Feel good to be beaten by a girl?" Luna laughed.

"Not fair," Aron groaned. "You're two!"

Amber laughed behind Luna. "We're still girls! And we're still beating your !" she said before throwing a snowball at him. Aron groaned and wiggled under Luna's grip when the snow hit him and he felt the coldness on his face.

"Think again!" Sohee yelled and Amber turned around. Sohee and Seokjin both hit her chest with a snowball each. Amber groaned; now she was out of the game.

"I'll fix it!" Luna called after her when Amber went to sit beside Hayoung. She quickly threw snow on Aron - now he was dead - before she threw a snowball on Seokjin. Luckily for her Byunghun came up behind Seokjin and 'killed' him for good. Then it was Sohee's turn. They stood two against two; Luna and Byunghun versus Sohee and Chanhee who came to help.

But before they got to smash down on each other, a bigger form suddenly ran in between them, covering all four in snow.

"What the...?" Byunghun said, shaking the snow out of his hair. He didn't manage to finish his sentence, though, when he saw two grinning faces in front of him.

"Good job, Jungkookie!" Ji Yong grinned, high fiving the kid who was sitting on his back. Jungkook grinned back at him, proud at his work. He and Ji Yong had both had their hands full of snow, planning to take one side each: Jungkook had thrown his handful of snow at Byunghun and Luna, while Ji Yong's slightly bigger handful had landed on his siblings' faces.

"Hey, I thought you were on our side, Jungkook?" Sohee said, pointing at her and Chanhee.

"Too bad. Now he's on our side," Ji Yong said with a smirk. "Come on, Jungkookie; we'll get Youngbae." Ji Yong ran towards the tree where Youngbae was currently making snowballs, with Jungkook on his back.

Sohee, Chanhee, Byunghun and Luna stared after them, before turning back to each other. They stared at each other with narrow eyes; let the fight begin!

In the end Chanhee killed Byunghun; Luna killed Chanhee; Chorong came to help but was killed by Sohee; Youngbae killed Sohee; Minki - who was still around - killed Jungkook, who got revenge by Ji Yong who killed Minki and Jonghyun; Luna killed Youngbae; and Ji Yong killed Luna.

"We won!" Ji Yong exclaimed with a grin, high fiving Youngbae and Jungkook - although Jungkook originally hadn't been on their team.

"No, you haven't," Minki just said, as if his older cousin was completely ignorant. They all stared at him, and he raised his eyebrows; were they serious? "Minhyun's still alive." He pointed towards where the boy stood, looking at the fight that had just taken place, along with all the 'dead'. Minhyun blinked up at Minki. Throughout the snowball fight he and Minki had collected snow and together thrown snowballs at their cousins; they'd killed Namjoo and Changjo.

"Then I'll just kill him." Ji Yong shrugged nonchalantly, making a snowball before adding, "sorry, Minhyun," and threw the ball towards his younger cousin. But Minhyun ducked by reflex and the snowball hit Namjoo's face instead. Ji Yong's hand flew to his mouth.

"Oh! I am so sorry, Namjoo!" He hurried over to the girl who started crying, covering her eyes with her hands. The snowball had hit her face hard and it was cold and suddenly it was no fun anymore. She felt it almost burning in her eyes, but maybe it was just her own tears. Ji Yong knelt down to look at her face at eyelevel. "Are you okay? Let me see, Namjoo." The girl shook her head and kept crying.

"I'll take her inside." Luna walked over to her younger and older cousins, grabbing Namjoo's shoulder gently and steered her in the direction of the front door. Namjoo didn't object and inside where Lu Han and Baekhyun had looked out the window at the children playing, Baekhyun said, "ChenSoo, a crying child coming your way," making the two ready to embrace her.

"Okay, so who's winning?" Byunghun asked outside, an eyebrow raised. Ji Yong shrugged. He felt bad for actually hurting his younger cousin.

"You can win," he then told Minhyun. Minhyun smiled and Minki ran over to hug him.

"Yay! We won!" Minki exclaimed, and he, Minhyun, Jonghyun and Jimin danced around in a circle. Ji Yong smiled at them, but then his smile changed into a surprised expression instead.

"Snow!" Taehyung yelled happily, looking at the sky and throwing snow around himself, hitting Ji Yong and anyone else around him. After he had thrown snowballs at practically everyone earlier, he had decided to make snow angels instead. But then after a while he noticed that everyone gathered in the middle of the garden and wanted to join them.

"Do you mind?" Chanhee said annoyed, brushing the snow off his coat and out of his hair. Taehyung pouted at him but then grinned again.

"I love snow!" He made a snowball, circled around himself a few times, before letting go of the ball so it - by accident - hit Ji Yong in the chest. "Sorry," he apologized with a little shy grin. Then he noticed the dancing Minki, Minhyun, Jonghyun and Jimin and ran over to them. "I want to play, too!" he said, throwing snow over them.

"Um..." Seokjin suddenly came to think of something. The older kids looked at him. "Taehyung never died, did he?" he asked. "But now he just hit both hyung and Minhyun with snow, didn't he? So doesn't that make him the winner...?" He looked hesitantly at the others, while the information sank in.

"I guess..." Luna said, then added, "Whose team is he on?"

"Mine and..." Seokjin said, pointing at himself, Chanhee, Aron and Sohee.

"So we won?" Aron asked surprised. When they nodded he grinned. "Ha!"

"Actually, I don't think Junhong died either, so... we actually have two survivors on our team," Sohee said, motioning to Junhong who was still crawling by the fence by himself. The team beamed, high fiving and exclaiming "we won!" to the sky.

Then they all went inside the house; it was starting to get cold and they sought for warmth. The parents helped them out of the wet and cold outerwear, before telling them that Lu Han was preparing hot chocolate for them. Walking past Namjoo who was sitting on her appa, cuddling close to him, Ji Yong apologized once again, but she didn't reply. Jongdae reassured him that she was okay, but he still felt bad. Therefore he went into the kitchen, asking his baba where the last cookies were, and came back to the living room handing her one. She accepted it with a shy smile and Ji Yong smiled, too.

In the time the children had played outside, Joonmyun had arrived to the house. Seeing that, Minhyun hugged him.

"Thank you for the magic set, uncle Joonmyun," he said and Joonmyun's stunned expression turned soft when he smiled at him.

"I'm glad you like it, Minhyun," he answered. "But I think you need to thank your parents for that one." Minhyun looked a bit surprised but then nodded understanding and went over to where his cousins were; he'd thank them later.

Then another little kid walked over to Joonmyun and crawled to his lap to hug him.

"Appa!" Minki said happily and Joonmyun smiled at him. But then Minki's expression turned somewhat mad. "Appa!" his voice had changed and he punched Joonmyun's chest. "Why weren't you here? You've missed so much!"

Joonmyun, understanding his son's frustration but still sensing his excitement in what he wanted to tell him, said, "I'm sorry, Minki. What did I miss? Tell me everything."

Minki tried covering his smile by furrowing his eyebrows, looking down and fidgeting with his shirt. "Nothing much..." he began, trying to get his appa's interest. "Only that Santa Clause was here..."

"Really?" Joonmyun raised an eyebrow. "What was he like?"

Minki didn't manage to keep a straight face, his face slowly turning bright and happy and excited when he told his appa what had happened. "He was really nice, appa! And I got a microphone from him!"

"A microphone?" Joonmyun feigned surprise. "Not a real one, did you?"

Minki nodded vigorously. "So I can practice for real! And it's white and blue and red..." Not a real one, Joonmyun thought and smiled at his son when he told everything about how he was going to sing so much from now on, with a real microphone! and he told about the snowball fight and everything that happened before Joonmyun got there.

Lu Han walked in a moment later with a tray with hot chocolate for all the children. Seeing and smelling the chocolate, Sehun unconsciously his lips. Zitao smirked, knowing exactly what his husband's thoughts were, but didn't say anything. Instead he just silently stood from his seat, went into the kitchen, wanting to prepare something for him as a surprise. Sehun had no idea that Zitao wanted to do something for him, but after a few minutes Zitao came back with a cup of hot chocolate for his husband.

"Is that for me?" Sehun looked up at his husband, when Zitao handed him the cup. Zitao nodded with a smile. "Thank you." Sehun took the cup and Zitao sat down beside him again, smiling sweetly at him. "You're the best," Sehun said, leaning in and kissing Zitao.

"You're not under the mistletoe!" somebody close by exclaimed and Zitao and Sehun broke apart, to look at their son.

"What?" Zitao asked if he could repeat it.

"You're not under the mistletoe. You can't kiss."

Zitao and Sehun grinned at each other and their son.

"You're so cute," Sehun said, pinching Junhong's cheek who grimaced uncomfortably. Zitao kissed Junhong's head, before Junhong managed to flee. The parents grinned at each other before briefly kissing again, and then Sehun enjoyed his hot beverage happily.

That night everyone fell asleep happily once again. The Kim family didn't sleep at the Kim Lu residence and the Wu family had also travelled home to China again, arriving late at night. Everyone laid in their own bed. Everyone had been content with the day; much had happened and they had all received much joy and good presents. When Minho and Jinki walked into Minhyun's bedroom, Minhyun hugged them.

"Thank you," the kid said. Minho and Jinki looked a bit puzzled at each other, not really knowing what the kid was referring to, but then a light seemed to come to Jinki. He smiled and hugged Minhyun an extra time.

"It's us who should thank you," he mumbled into the boy's ear. Minho was still looking a bit confused, but then shook it off, kissing Minhyun goodnight.

"We love you, Minhyun," Minho said before turning off the light. "Goodnight."

A/N: Hey, guys! So this was the last part of the Christmas bonus. I hope you enjoyed it! ^_^ I tried writing about everyone (not much BaekYeol mentioning or ChenSoo or TaeKai, 'cause they featured a lot in the other parts), so some of it might seem a bit forced... I hope it's not...

I hope you got into the New Year in good shape with no accidents and with good health and happiness! ^_^ And I hope your year will be great!

Next time I'll upload, it will be a chapter to the main story. Hope you're excited for that!

Thank you so much for reading! And if you enjoyed this, please comment and subscribe! ^o^

See you next week <3