“Suho Appa!” Luna dragged the older man towards a Christmas display in the busy streets of Shanghai, Suho clutched Luna’s hand tightly worried that he’d lose her in the swarm of people, it was rush hour, and it was Christmas Eve which made it even worse.

Actually Suho didn’t even think they celebrated Christmas in China.

He was wrong.

Fairy lights and paper lanterns were strung all along the city, not to mention the lingering smell of gingerbread that seemed to appear every time they passed a bakery.

Luna in one hand and various shopping bags in the other, Suho ushered Luna away from one of many Christmas displays and into a small coffee shop, where he gave a deep sigh and sat Luna down before going up and ordering a hot chocolate.

He also grabbed her a little gingerbread man, it was Christmas after all.

Lay got off his conference in fifteen minutes, he still had to get the presents he had bought for them wrapped. He sighed as he watched Luna drinking her hot chocolate while he thought about how he was going to do this.

He had got Luna a stuffed unicorn toy- like her father she was rather fond of unicorns, he also got her a necklace with little golden stars on it.

For lay he bought some shirts- because he needed them, Lay forgot to bring any shirts apart from the one he had to wear for work and also a watch.

He even got Victoria something- A gold bangle

Suho raised his hand for a waitress to come

“Yes, how may I help you?” She was pretty in that wholesome kind of way, Suho fumbled with his Chinese dictionary

“Um do you know where I can get these wrapped?” He stuttered in let’s face it, terrible Chinese the waitress only smiled  

“Well… There isn’t anywhere round her sorry… But if you like we could do it here; we have some wrapping paper in the staff room from our secret Santa”

“Oh, that’d be great! I’d really appreciate it, thank you”

“Sure, I’ll just go do that now okay?”

Suho turned back to Luna “How has your day been?” He asked softly

“Good! Suho Appa is fun to be around!”

He fought a smile as he got his phone out “Do you want to talk to mummy?”

“Mummy wants to speak to me?”

“She should always want to speak to you darling” Suho frowned a bit dialling Victoria’s number

Hello?

“Hey, it’s Suho- Luna wants to talk to you”

Hmm? Okay, it better be quick though I’m quite busy, is Yixing with you?

“No… He’s not”

Didn’t think so; tell him to have a good Christmas from me okay? And… Tell him I love him

“Will do” He turned to Luna “Here mummy’s on the phone for you” He smiled warmly

Luna had just finished talking to her mum when the waitress came back with his gifts now wrapped nicely

“I cannot thank you enough for this”

“Don’t mention it- Merry Christmas, your daughter looks like you”

Suho was thrown for a bit “Oh she’s not mine but thank you I guess? Have a good Christmas”

The waitress looked a little taken aback “Oh really? Not yours? She looks so much like you”

“Well… haha” Suho scratched the back of his head nervously, goddammit where was Lay?

Luck was on Suho’s side when Lay just walked through the doors, brushing snow off his sleeves

“Hey” Lay grinned and strode towards the trio and the waitress smiled sweetly

“Oh is this your boyfriend?” She asked Suho

“What??” Suho asked surprised “No- no, Lay is my friend”

“Oh… Well very nice meeting you, have a merry Christmas” The waitress went red with embarrassment before walking away

“What was she on?” Lay asked turning away from his daughter

“No idea, let’s go”

----

It was around ten when they returned home; they had gone out for dinner and then strolled along the streets as stores were open super late on Christmas Eve. Luna was falling asleep as Lay carried her into the hotel suite. Suho waited on the sofa while Lay put Luna to bed.

“Do you want coffee?” Lay asked walking back into the living area of their cramped suite

“We have coffee?”

“Well, I was thinking we could ring room service- they have a Starbucks in the foyer, crazy right?”

“Pretty crazy” Suho laughed at Lay’s astonishment

“And! They have Christmas specials!” Lay said excitedly “I always wanted one when we were in Uni but we were always so poor”

“Well kinda poor… Or maybe we were just tight”

“Or maybe we didn’t want to waste our parents money” Lay poked his tongue out

“Okay, okay look how about you tell me what you want and I’ll go down to the foyer and get it” Suho proposed smiling

Lay didn’t know what was happening but it seemed whenever Suho smiled his heart would accelerate just the slightest bit. What was happening? He brushed it off with a laugh

“Get me a gingerbread latte please”

“Sure, you want cream?”

“YES! God Victoria banned cream from our household because she doesn’t want her or Luna to get fat, it’s like as if my angel could ever get fat”

Suho chuckled softly “Okay… Let me go get that for you, cream deprived person” He left the suite as Lay started loosening his tie

The smell of coffee and peppermint filled Suho’s nose as he approached the counter he ordered peppermint mocha for himself and Lay’s gingerbread latte- with extra cream Suho made sure.

Carrying the coffee up to the suite Suho felt at peace- the first time in a long time, it seemed things were easing back to normal, they were getting closer after what seemed like forever of drifting, Lay had a perfect family and Suho was happy for them, his heartache seemed to be going away slowly

What I didn’t know was that it was because, it was happening, that I was feeling in love and for once, it was being reciprocated- maybe not in the way I wanted it to, but still it was being reciprocated

They sat on the balcony in the cold Chinese air with coffee on their breath.

Laughing and talking way into the night.

For once Suho felt happy

In so long- for once he felt hopeful

For once he felt like it might be okay.