Final
Christmas Reunion
"But Umma can't we play in the snow some more before we leave?" The boy asked, kicking his feet at a rather tempting pile lingering on his very own doorstep. The arrival of snow was the best thing Donghae could manage to ask for on a Christmas eve, and he wanted nothing more than to pile it up beneath his small gloved fingers and build something that partially resembled his older brother who was already slouched into their car.
Without a selfish bone in his body though, Donghae knew it was the right thing to do, although soon he would be tucked in his bed, forced to sleep with the promise of presents being delivered by the big guy in the red coat, it was as much of a tradition to go out and give presents to the Orphaned children, as it was to settle down with relatives you only saw once a year and eat turkey.
With Donghae humming along, out of tune and uncaring to the Christmas songs that were blaring away over the top of his parents conversation, his rosy cheek pressed against the window, dark eyes following the white flakes already being freed from the sky again,completely enjoying the winter wonderland that they lived in at the moment. This was by far his favorite time in the year. With his pockets filled with his own personal gifts that he had picked out from his toys, more than happy to give them to kids that were less fortunate than him.
---
With his parents already in the midst of sharing out presents between kids of all ages, some clinging to each other, clearly over joyed at the sight of a gift that to him, had been one of many, but to them it made their Christmas. He just felt sad that there wasn't enough to go around. Standing hesitantly in the doorway, knowing he had a couple toys in his pockets and he wanted to pick the perfect person that they were suited to, he wandered around, eyes immediately passing by girls that wouldn't be the match for the presents he had clutched underneath his fists.
Drawn by the snow falling heavily outside he tip-toed over to the window, squishing his nose against the class to stare outside, his awe distracted by the sight of a mop of hair dusted with white, slouched cross legged in the snow. Intrigued the boy went rushing out the door, leaving a haze of snow behind him as he ran sloppily through the snow, throwing himself down in a crouch in front of the shivering boy. "Hi whats your name!" He squeaked, practically unaware of the other boys dim expression, watching him reproachfully underneath snow covered eyelashes.
He observed him for a moment, his body was scrawny, his hair was long, brushing his shoulders but at the front it was cut oddly... as if he had attempted to trim it himself. Part of him wanted to run his fingers through the poor kids hair, wondering if it was soft or not.
The boy sat still, apart from the trembling of his shoulders, clothes two sizes too small already soaked through thanks to the snow. Watching the perky eight year old out the corner of his eye, marveling at how he tilted his head back, tongue stuck out , almost touching his nose, seemingly trying to taste the snowflakes.
"Hyukjae."
The small whisper caught Donghae by surprised, the other boys voice was rough on the edges, almost as if he wasn't use to talking.
"Yah Hyukkie i have a present for you!" He told him, watching the boys dull eyes light with curiosity as he dug around in his pockets, groping the presents he had trying to find the perfect one, wriggling until his fingers were wrapped around it, shoving it exuberantly under the young boys nose.
He turned his palm over until it dropped into the other boys frost bitten hands, haphazardly wrapped, the paper not quite meeting up in the middle. "Here... don't open it until tomorrow okay... promise?" He asked, shoving his warm hands on either side of the boys face to get him to look at him.
That managed to pull a smile from the boy, drawing his lips back to give him a rare gummy smile, one in which was missing his two front teeth. "F-for me.. really?" He questioned, head tilted, hair falling down over his eyes.
Resisting the urge to offer him a haircut for Christmas too Hae just beamed at him, full of smiles, oblivious to the jittering of the youngers jaw beneath his hand, unaware that both the cold and the fact that he'd never received a present before had him shaking.
"Sure! Merry Christmas Hyukjae."
---
Living a life led by purpose, Donghae was a difficult culprit to drag out with you on a Friday night, but with the promise of all the proceeds going towards charity, Kyuhyun managed to get him out, bundled underneath a scarf and half muttering complaints about not having much money on him.
"If i buy your drinks will you quit complaining?" Kyuhyun muttered, already striding ahead of him to his car, breathing heavily on the window, as if that might be enough to rid the car windows of the ice that had collected there over night.
" it... we're going to be late."
Donghae who had been in no real mood to venture out into the cold took his chance, sauntering up behind the taller boy and smirked up to him as he lent his against the side of the car. "Oh please you're just bitter because you'll be keeping Seohyun waiting." He jeered, a glint into his eyes that Kyuhyun certainly didn't find amusing.
"Ya hyung, how many times do i have to tell you i don't like her?" He growled at him, slapping him round the side of the head with the hand he had been using to try and scrape some of the ice off the windows with.
Donghae just gave him a slow smile, backing away to protect his precious face from getting damaged by Kyuhyun's grumpy mood. "Careful Kyu, respect your elders or i might just allow Sungmin to maul you again." He told him, hinting at a memory that had Kyuhyun curling his lip up in distaste at the memory of previous parties past.
With Kyuhyun's driving having him half tempted to deposit his lunch on the sidewalk, Donghae rolled out of the car, his clothing much more chilled compared to how Kyuhyun was clearly dressed to impress. He had only really agreed to come to this charity event, not only to protect Kyu when his dongsaeng got too drunk to fend for himself, but because the particular cause had always had a space in his heart.
He already donated his small amount of his earnings from his job towards a small home for orphaned children, although he hated to admit that his schedule had been too busy to even visit them at this time of year for a long time.
Although they were slightly late, people were still arriving and he sunk down into his seat, feeling under dressed surrounded by people that were clad in suits for the occasion, and he just had on a shirt, over his favorite pair of jeans, attempting to become invisible. Although Kyuhyun was focused entirely on swirling the remains of his second drink in five minutes around the bottom of his glass, Donghae was genuinely interested in the speech taking place... or at least.. he was trying to be.
The sound was coming from a rather nice set of lips, not realizing until his eyes stung that he had been admiring them rather unblinkingly. There was no smile though, just facts being stated that were falling on deaf ears. He didn't blame him really... he wasn't good at public speeches either, and especially since the room was buzzing with tons of other conversations flaring away, the poor guy stood no chance of being listened too.
He had Donghae's full attention though, even if he wasn't listening to him talk about the rising statistics of children being orphaned in the country so much as he was tilting his head to get a better look at his . His hair was nice... unnatural, but he couldn't really picture him with anything other than the striking blonde hair. The sharp jaw line did it for him though... and he couldn't quite tell from here but he was almost certain he was wearing eyelin-
"KYUHYUN-SSI!"
A shrill, rather over exaggerated shout had him pulled from his rather enticing thoughts about the man standing on a platform a couple of tables in front of him, and instead he felt the biting grip of Kyu trying to hide himself into Hae's arm.
"Save me Hyung.." He groaned, hoping the soju bottle he had placed in front of his face would be an adequate hiding place. Donghae only smirked, prising him off him and snatching the bottle out of his hands, lifting it up to the smirk creasing along his lips and leaving him helpless.
Oh to be desirable and have an attitude like his.
------
Stumbling, being the lightweight that he was, Donghae was sure that he would trip over his own feet if it wasn't for Kyuhyun's grip around his wrist, dragging him along, Hae could only assume that this was the continued escape from Sungmin that he had been making for the past hour.
He drank on the go though, good old Kyuhyun who could keep his alcohol down better than poor Hae. At the point where his eyesight was a couple of minutes too slow, he just grinned stupidly when his teeth smacked into Kyuhyun's back, peeking around him, greeted by a mop of blonde hair.
"Donghae, this is Eunhyuk Hyung." Kyu hissed in his ear, grabbing Hae's hand to offer it to Hyuk who was expectantly waiting to shake it.
OMG IT'S MR ING, DEFINED JAW LINE.
"Nice to meet you OnLegs." He slurred, grabbing his hand and waving it around a bit before he went back to slouching on his best friend.
Eunhyuk appeared taken aback for a moment, but he could clearly see how intoxicated he was, and chose to ignore the drop of drool rolling down Donghae's chin. "I see you're enjoying the hospitality Mr Lee." He chuckled, distracted by other people sidling up to him to shake his hand, but he threw the occasional glance back to Donghae who was currently fighting another bottle away fron Kyuhyun's lips. "Kyu.. there's sungmin Hyung--" He whispered in his ear, earning a yelp, getting him to free it immediately, Hae staggering away, laughing to himself.
----
Sitting secluded, his only company a collection of empty bottles piled on the table, Donghae slid down in his seat, hazed eyes searching around all the unfamiliar faces. "Kyuuuu..." He whined searching for his-
KYUHYUN!
It took him a moment to wonder whether this was just some drunken stupor... but no, his eyes had definitely ran over a lonely Seohyun, landed most definitely on Kyu's slim, tall figure, having wondered for a moment if he was decorating the wall with some kind of vomit art.. but no, his hands were pressed against the wall for an entirely different reasons.
He had a much shorter figure clinging to him... in more than one place. Sungmin's little legs were most definitely locked around Kyu's waist, and even more definitely was the face that he was devouring his mouth like some kind of deprived animal.
Well. Ha.
He would never let Kyuhyun live this one down, because he certainly wasn't protesting against it at all.
Dodgy Bastard. He grumbled as he staggered towards the bathroom, somewhat pleased about this turn of events, so hate him if his only motives was to tease Kyu when he sobered up.
Straight my . He scoffed, humming to himself as he shouldered the door open.
With the amount that he had drunk it was no doubt that he had to pee, laughing rather manically to himself, the very memory running through his mind making him take a moment to laugh out loud while he was alone.
"Why're you laughing?" A man voiced, Hae's eyes immediately flickered inappropriately to the guy stood next to him, gaping at him for a moment.
Eun...eunhyuk?
Well... well he certainly is promising all over...
"Uh... ha!" He murmured, forcing himself to keeps his eyes to himself, clearly his throat awkwardly and backing away while he zipped up.
Eunhyuk was visibly different to the composed man he had been on the stage, a couple more buttons were undone from his shirt, and there was a clear sheen of sweat collected on the skin that he could see. He had clearly hit the dance floor at some point, something Donghae was sad he had missed.
"No one ever teach you it was guy code not the watch the other guy pee, huh?" The other man voiced, clearly still only half interested in him, that was until he turned his eyes on him, dark and inviting and had Hae melting enough that he had to lean back against the sinks as his eyes continued to swoop over him.
With Donghae shuffling awkwardly, half unsteady on his feet, half debating with his sub-conscious whether it was better to go out there to a rather Kyuhyun and Sungmin, or stay in here, alone with a very tempting looking Eunhyuk. "So what else do you do, besides on grown men in a bathroom?" The question caught him off guard and he stumbled over his words for a moment, unsure whether to argue his case or to just accept that honestly, it was completely what he was doing, whether he would ever admit that or not.
He should Invest in a smaller then, idiot.
"I-i... not a lot." He muttered. Smooth Donghae, real smooth. "My job's not brilliant, i've always wanted to work with kids but instead i just ended up working in my parents bakery."
Pitiful, ty life Donghae, could you not have spiced it up a bit?
Hyuk just smiled, a big, toothy smile that he couldn't quite decipher was either extremely hot, or scarily horror film worthy. Whether the guy seemed to be advancing on him in slow motion, Hae persuaded himself not to pay particular attention to the movement of his hips, dark wide eyes, filled with some kind of fake innocence as they followed him, watched as the charity founder lent against the wall next to him, non-existent jutting out as he wrote something, pockets clearly filled with necessary pens and paper... and then OMG HE WAS GROPING HIS .
Realizing a little too late after letting out a strange inhuman noise that was too guttural not to be embarrassing, that he was merely adding to the words that Hae had ignored, that he had slipped a number into his back pocket, tossed something over his shoulder about giving him a call if he wanted to help out on the current project the charity was holding, to gather names of every deprived or lonely kid this Christmas to ensure that they'd be gifted this year.
---
With Kyuhyun having safely barricaded himself and Sungmin into his room, Donghae had nothing productive to do, mid morning and nursing a headache.
Venturing outside into the snow, his hands buried deep within his pockets, he wasn't heading anywhere in particular, although he found it rather eery that despite the snow bringing out the best in him, everyone else was tucked away in their houses, hiding from the cold.
Childishly enjoying kicking at the snow, he was blissfully unaware of the fact that just metres away, Eunhyuk had his face well and truely buried in his hands, cheeks red from being out in the cold so long. His clothes were a lot less formal than they had been last night, and his hair almost blended in with the snow, a bleached off-white shade that had Donghae completely missing him.
" Hyung..?"
He questioned upon spotting him after shamelessly crouching down to bundle up a ball of snow in his hands his eyes landed on the man who was sat alone. After hesitating for he just grinned, sidling over to him and sitting down on the other edge of the bench. Distractedly fishing his phone out of his pocket, head tilted in the most concentration he could muster he pressed his phone to his ear, watching Eunhyuk expectantly when the other guys phone started buzzing in his pocket.
"What are you doing?" The other guy questioned, the same rough tone to his voice that hinted that he had been sitting out in the cold for too long.
"Just checking it was you." He answered, as if that made all the sense in the world and hung up on him, pouting because he didn't answer his call even though he was sitting next to him.
Eunhyuk gave him a distracted, kind of wry smile that said yes this was him, and although Donghae could visibly see the difference in him, the un-suited, messy haired Eunhyuk, he couldn't say he minded.
Always the one to disregard personal space Donghae scooted over to him until he was practically glued to his hip, mimicking how he had his head in his hands. "Are you waiting for someone?"
"No."
"Arn't you cold?"
"No."
"Oh..."
Donghae wondered how the world wasn't as conversational as him, and the rather dismal looking Eunhyuk seemed to have been sitting out here for a long time.
Donghae sighed, fiddling around with his phone again, undeterred by the fact that Eunhyuk clearly didn't want to talk. Little did he know that he had something on his mind.
Eunhyuk sighed, he could feel Donghaes dark eyes burning into the back of his head and it wasn't long before his phone was vibrating in his pocket again. Sighing he pulled it out and put it ot his ear. "Yeah?"
"You said if i wanted to help... to ring you so... i am." The voice beside him chirped, echoing through the phone.
Eunhyuk just laughed at the situation, hanging up on him and finally turning to face him. "Truth is Dongha-"
"Coffee."
"What..?"
"You want to go for a Coffee." Although donghae wasn't as... abruptly suggestive as he had been last night but he was beggining to learn that was the way donghae was.
----
How exactly Donghae had managed to drag him off that bench and into the little coffee shop next door to his parents bakery he didn't know, but the other guy was giving him a strange look, which was oddly adorable in a way that he would never mention.
With each quirk of his lips Donghae had a hard time retaining his laughter, despite the miserable puzzled look on Eunhyuk's face. "You uh.. have a little..."
Eunhyuk had been overly grateful of the hot chocolate delivered in front of him, and lacking warmth at the moment had been drinking it at little too fast and now had a full chocolate moustache lining his upper lip.
Donghae just grinned when poor Eunhyuk went a little cross eyed trying to see what he was looking at and actually had the audacity to crawl over the table towards him to smack a napkin against his face. Not so much a romantic gesture as a clumsy one.
It took Eunhyuk a while, whether to get over the cold or Donghae's lack of personal space, but eventually he started telling him what he had been trying to earlier.
"Truth is... last night didn't raise a lot of money, i've lived at the orphanage... for a while, looking after the kids but there really isn't the funding anymore, i practically work there for free."
"I can help you." He whispered, always the one who was persistant in helping out.
Hyuk's lips tilted up into a wry smirk. "I can only guess that you must be good with kids." Since you practically are one.
Donghae's old neighbour was watching them, Sooyoung had been his childhood friend for longer than he could remember considering his parents had lived upstairs above the bakery next door until they got more money for move into a bigger house. Having been best friends well before Kyuhyun came into the picture she knew more things about him than most, and that was probably what had her grinning like a fool, tapping her fingernails against the counter, clearly plotting something embarrassing.
It took her a moment, but she was soon sauntering over, a pair of reindeer antlers perched upon her head, casually leaning a hand against her hip, something casually dangling in her hand. "So can i get you boys anything?" She questioned, way too casually for the slow smile spreading over her lips.
It took Donghae a moment to drag his eyes away from drooling over Eunhyuk's hair to say the least, their conversation having taken a turn in many directions away from what they did as a job, the guy clearly never got away from it and it seemed like he had a lot to say for himself, and Donghae was a good listener.
"SOOYOUNG NO." He snapped, causing Hyukjae to jump in his seat, and cause the opposite effect of staring straight at what she had in her hands.
Mistletoe. Mistle bloody toe.
Donghae, embarrassed, dived for it and quickly threw it as far he could across the cafe.
"Go fetch. We're leaving." He told her, pushing his chair back and looking away from Eunhyuk to hide the colour in his cheeks.
"Yeah... good luck with that." She muttered, pointing outside.
Eunhyuk tilted his head back to look outside.
Sure it had been a winter wonderland before... but now.
The paths were no longer distinguishable from the road, the cars were while lumps on the scenery, and there was a sure blizzard blowing out there, enough so that you could only see a couple of meters outside the window before you were plunged into sheer white.
They wouldn't going anywhere.
Driving was definitely out of the question, but then again, so was walking.
They stared at each other helplessly for a moment, knowing that Christmas was only a couple of days away, as nice as the snow was they needed to get back to what they did best.
"The kids." Eunhyuk muttered clearly distraught by the fact that he wouldn't be there to look after them.
Donghae on the other hand had no worries, his and Kyuhyun's apartment was only a street away and it was on the tip of his tongue to offer for Eunhyuk to stay at his until the snow died down, but how long would that take?
Sooyoung was grining to herself, as if the snowfall was all part of her big plan, like she had some control over the weather after all.
----
"Okay... so this is my apartment.... i know its small and Kyuhyun's clothes are all over the place but-"
"Its nice." Eunhyuk interrupted, pushing his blonde hair back from his eyes to admire the fact that although Donghae's apartment was homely, it wasn't very Christmassy at all.
While Donghae was preoccupied with prising doors open, clearly in search of anyone else being in the apartment, and although the presence of a most likely Kyuhyun or Sungmin would have been a shock, it was much more awkward that they were alone.
When he found that Eunhyuk's eyes had been following him the whole time he just stared blankly at him before lowering his gaze, putting his hands on either side of his face as casually as he could to hide the colour on his cheeks from going into a warm house from the cold. "What?" He questioned, the assertive stare that the blonde was giving him was enough to make his voice squeak slightly. Maybe he shouldn't have invited him after all, he couldn't possibly know who he was.
"Well, wheres all your christmas decorations?" He demanded.
Donghae let out a sigh of relief and jumped over a pile of clothes (Not wanting to know whos exactly they were) to start dragging out a big box.
It took them a moment to find the Christmas tree in the midst of things and although Eunhyuk had never agreed to helping him put everything up it was kind of a mutual agreement between the two of them, with nothing else to do and the outside snow too dangerous to travel in, they might as well get in the Christmas spirit.
Donghae wrestled with the tree for a moment to get it in place, although it had a slight tilt to it because of one year when Kyuhyun slipped on all the baubles and completely tackled the tree to the ground, they'd had it for ages and it was easier than having a real tree.
Hanging the mis-matched baubles up wherever they thought they should go, they worked in a comfortable silence, one that was filled with the odd laugh when Donghae kept getting tangled up in the Christmas lights. "Hyung." He muttered after a moment, well and truely wrapped up in them, his arms pinned to his sides. While Eunhyuk was completely engrossed in hanging decorations at the top of the tree, stretching and revealing a well defined hip bone that had Hae mentally groaning.
Eunhyuk was just about to come to his rescue, bauble in hand, stretching again to place it next to another one when he paused, eyebrows tilted in concentration, staring seemingly at his reflection in the glass of the bauble. Sure Donghae's decorations were all odd and none of them really matched, but this one was oddly familiar to him, and he switched off to Donghae's brightly lit pleas of help as he tried to figure something out, something odd about what he had in his hands.
They'd had a whole set of these back at the orphanage, of course kids were kids and most of them smashed but they'd been there ever since he could remember... ever since...
They'd thrown them out a couple years back but it had Eunhyuk looking at him, really looking at him, all puzzled and trapped among wires that had tiny little lights attached, lighting up the features of his face, and that lop-sided tilt to his lips, a familiar smile that could have you longing for anything he had to offer, possible false hopes, but he wanted them all none the less.
And this wasn't a foreign feeling, he'd felt it before, and it forced a rare smile out of him, one that had poor easily pleased Donghae beaming at him even more.
Without a word he hung the decoration, paying particular detail to where he put it, before he stepped over to unwrap Donghae, unwravelling him until he could get his arms free.
"Babo."
It wasn't long before their tree was finished and although it looked like a bunch of five year old's had decorated it, it still had them smiling.
Donghae was still fishing around in the boxes, pulling out a Santa hat and dumping it on Eunhyuk's head, pulling it down over his eyes, finding himself much better suited to a pair of Reindeer antlers, trotting around to the back of the tree to turn the lights on.
With both of them standing there, hands on their hips admiring the different settings the lights had, they glowed for a moment before flickering and dying. "What-"
Donghae complained, trying to turn the main room lights on to see what the problem was.
Nothing.
The electricity had gone out, and so apparently had the heating.
Brilliant, the storm must have thrown everything off and they were plunged into darkness.
At that exact moment, after two seconds of standing in complete disbelieving silence the door was flung open, Sungmins short recognizable steps bounding into the room and slamming into Donghae's back, throwing him in Eunhyuk's direction, clearly unintentional of course.
"Offt." He muttered, reindeer antlers falling off his head into the darkness.
Kyuhyun came in next, blinding everyone with the torch app he had on his phone. There was a lot of eyebrow raising. Donghae never got to question him about Sungmin, and he wouldn't have the chance now, considering he was so conveniently in Eunhyuk's arms at that moment in time that any joke he tried to make would backfire, because he was just as gay as the next person.
"Everything's out in the whole building." Kyuhyun filled them in, all four of them sitting in a bleak circle around the Christmas tree, lit only by their phone lights and the Christmas candles that Donghae was trying to find in one of the boxes.
"Don't set fire to the tree again Hae." Kyuhyun warned, like he was the wise one.
Donghae just scowled at him, like he didn't need reminding of the time that he'd tripped, his pants caught fire and he'd rolled over towards the tree and set that alight too.
Why was christmas always a disaster?
Donghae narrowed his eyes when Sungmin whispered something in Kyuhyun's ear.
"What?" He demanded, thinking maybe they were in on something with Sooyoung too.
"Oh nothing!" Sungmin piped up sweetly. "I was just reminding Kyubear of the best ways to get warm-"
Kyubear?!...
Oh god forbid if they started getting right here and trying to share each others body heat.
With a rather disgruntled huff donghae pointed towards Kyuhyun's room violently. "Out!" He pleaded the both of them, covering his eyes and shaking his head.
Donghae was glad that he couldn't really see Eunhyuk's face at the moment, because god only knew how horrified he might be looking.
"If the snow clears.. i can drop you off in the morning if you like." He murmured, Eunhyuk's blonde hair casting a shadow over his face, both of their eyes dark enough that you couldn't really make them out in the limited light, especially with Kyuhyun's phone gone.
Eunhyuk was in a world of his own, he could sense where Donghae was at the moment, but it was more so where he had been before that he was thinking about. His eyes flickered over to the shadow of the Christmas tree every so often, puzzled by the appearance of something that brought up childhood memories, ones that he would feel much too foolish to mention. Momentarily distracted donghae's sudden close proximity, leaning over him and blocking out the light, startled him to say the least. He was leaning over, his face inches from his, his lips oddly pouted and for a moment he nearly had a heart attack, he was going to kiss him- he was going to..
But instead he just blew out the candle besides Hyukjae, smiling at him, something he could sense despite the darkness and pulled a blanket up from behind the couch and handed it to him. "Night Hyuk."
---
Eunhyuk was groggy when he woke up in the morning, having a cold to show for all the time he'd spent out in the snow yesterday he was reluctant to roll over even when the sun touched the back of his head, lighting up the room that had seemed eerily dark for too long. In proper light he could see how badly decorated the tree was this year and he just smirked to himself, rolling over and flinching when he came face to face with a massive pair of two chocolately eyes.
"Aish!" He murmured, scared enough that he sneezed.
Donghae just politely wiped his face of Eunhyuk's saliva..or snot one of the two and rocked back on his heels. "Morning Hyung!" He chirped, causing Eunhyuk to burying his face back in the pillow with a groan.
"You drool in your sleep you know."
That piece of information was completely unnecessary but Eunhyuk couldn't help but roll his eyes, pushing Donghae back by his shoulders so he could get up. Edging carefully around the Christmas tree he walked over to the window, wiping it with his hand, greeted by the same winter wonderland but the roads were cleared.
Not the usual persons ideal Christmas eve, but then Hyuk would be spending it alone anyway. Like he had every year. With some non-discrete noise coming from Kyuhyun's room Donghae pulled a face, grabbed Eunhyuk's hand without really thinking about it and quickly towed them out of the apartment.
He could feel how cold he was and should probably have offered him a coat considering they were practically the same size but it was too late now because they most definitely had to escape the disturbing noises.
Running for no real reason until they reached the car, Eunhyuk bent over, eyes scrunched up cutely, anticipating a sneeze. Instead he just peeked his eyes open once it receded, gave Donghae a surprised toothy smile, the other guy having already let go of his hand and was already slipping his way around to the drivers side of the car.
---
Eunhyuk's house was further away than he thought, and it was a slow drive, hesitant not to crash his car into someones house. Listening to his directions, in a childish world of his own, completely absorbing the winter weather, Donghae was ignorant towards where they were going and so when he pulled up outside a gated area, a quaint little four story building equipped with a playgroup outside he could only stare. It was covered in snow, but the same. The same as it had been every year.
"Uh-"
"I know, its not practical but its home and the kids-"
Donghae wasn't really listening to him, because this place was familiar to him too.
"So you live on the top floor?"
With a nod Eunhyuk smiled at some of the younger kids out in the snow, poking their hands through the fence once they saw him get out a car. "Oppa oppa come play in the snow with us!" They pleaded, bouncing up and down against the fence, their big gummy smiles somewhat similar to the one that Eunhyuk had plastered on his face at the moment.
When Donghae followed him into the orphanage, children flocking towards someone who was clearly their favourite person, as if he was some kind of famous.
One little girl attached herself to his leg, her hair held up in little pig tails as if she had done it herself. Bouncing and pointing up at him, her wide brown eyes reflecting the fact that he had slept with his reindeer antlers on still he smiled, taking them off and placing them on her head instead.
"kamsahamnida Oppa!" She whispered, burying her face in his side, getting dragged along a couple of steps before he picked her up and put her on his shoulder.
"Hyung can i keep her?" He asked childishly, prodding Eunhyuk in the back with a smile.
---
It was a while before they could persuade the children to come in from the snow, Eunhyuk's cold considerably worse after his clothes being soaked through with the multiple snow balls the children had pelted him with. Donghae's team was considerably smaller than Eunhyuk's, but the little girl who had taken a liking to him was on his side and she was considerably good at throwing despite her petite size.
Taking a moment to actually appreciate the heating Hyuk's apartment had, waiting while he changed and taking a moment to snoop around his place to get to know him better. He had a shelf of random things, drawings that the children had made him, some kind of rock that one of them had found and painted. They must have given him toys to because there was one, a little-
No way.
Taking pride of place on one of his shelves, although old and clearly among other meaningful things was a small, plush nemo staring right at him.
Not odd at all, he had a lot of soft toys at home still, admittedly.
But this one too... he'd had at home at one point.
So many years ago, although he could still remember it clearly, a boy in the snow. A man in the snow. There really wasn't much difference.
"Whats wrong?" The voice from behind him startled him and he almost threw the Nemo at him accusingly.
"Where did you get this?" He questioned and he frowned at the gummy smile spreading over Eunhyuk's face.
"A little boy gave me this many Christmas' ago."
Donghae's face was a picture of shock, at first his face flushed with confusion, clutching onto the Nemo and just full out staring at the other guy.
"You... Hyukjae." He muttered, tilting his head.
He remembered that day clearly in his mind, little Hyukjae had complained that it wasn't fair to accept a gift from someone without doing the same in return, and although they had played in the snow together for some time it wasn't long before the homeless boy was dragging him inside, searching desperately for something he could give him. All he could really offer was one of the Christmas decorations off the tree, handing it to him proudly, smile too big for his face, something the orphanage staff had never seen.
A cute adorable side to Hyukjae. Happy.
"I got adopted the year after i met you, you know..."
"Is it really you?"
"My parents might have changed my name... but yeah, its me."
Donghae was in slight shock, mouth hanging open unattractively. He'd gone back the next Christmas with a pecific gift for the other boy but he hadn't been there. He couldn't get his young mind around why, and he felt selfish enough that he didn't want to give the gift to anyone else.
"I never gave you your present." He whined.
Hyukjae looked entrigued by that and just smiled, pushing the sleeves up of his warm sweater absent mindedly. Walking over and prising the toy out of his hands, reaching around him to put it back on the shelf.
"I havn't got you a present this year though." Donghae murmured, going slightly cross eyed in his attempts to look him in the eye.
"Oh really? I've got one for you."
"Wha-" Donghae asked turning around in a small circle in search of it.
Eunhyuk let out a slight bubbling laugh in the back of his throat, donghae nearly headbutting him when he turned back around in shock at the hand against his chest, letting out a rather undignified hum of shock when Hyuk's lips pressed against him, warming him up from the cold weather outside.
"Merry Christmas."
The fact that the heating was out in his apartment.. maybe Hae would spend Christmas here for a change. Besides both Donghae and Hyukjae would be giving presents to all the orphans together this year.
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