“Annoying,” Luhan muttered quietly to himself, “So damn annoying… Why can’t they all just shut up already?” The boy felt his knees gradually raise to his chest as he continued to mumble words of disgruntle that thankfully no one could here. Apart from maybe Xiumin, whose lap was at that time the perfect resting place for Luhan’s head.

“What are you moping about now?” The oldest of exo finally inquired with a soft chuckle.

“I’m not moping,” Luhan defended quickly whilst shifting slightly on the couch.

“I can read you like the back of my hand so lie to me all you want, kid.”

“Thank you. I will,” The younger snorted.

“Tell me how that goes for you,” With that and another little chuckle, Minseok averted his full attention back onto the TV screen where a rather cheesy romance drama was being displayed. Luhan groaned yet again as another round of laughter paraded coldheartedly into his ears. Oh how he hated Christmas…

With that joyful holiday just around the corner, exo certainly got into the holiday spirit, for once the calendar hit December virtually everything they did was Christmas themed. For instance the movies they watched, the desserts they baked, the music they listened to and even the clothes they wore.

Christmas here Christmas there, Christmas, Christmas everywhere a mothering Christmas. It was driving Luhan insane. What the hell is so spectacular about it anyway? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s just a waste of hard earned money and valuable time.

Luhan glanced up ever so slightly over his shoulder, eyes narrowing at the three males that were oh-so-loudly and to mention sickeningly enthusiastically decorating their oversized Christmas tree. The boy snarled a little when his bandmates began throwing and wrapping each other up in colorful ribbons, their bright smiles and crinkled eyes revealing just how much they were enjoying themselves.

“Stop staring at him,” Xiumin spoke in a way that Luhan didn’t even have to look up to see that he was sporting that knowing smirk of his.

“I’m not staring.” He grumbled, yet refused to peel his gaze away from that one particular member who was playfully tickling Baekhyun’s nose with a fluffy pink toy, grinning as he watched the shorter giggle and scurry away. He was basically giving the singer a whole lot more attention than he deserved. Luhan’s glare intensified.

“You’ll shoot daggers,” The older poked in yet again.

“Yeah, well I ing hope so.”

“Language,” Xiumin playfully slapped the other’s forehead.

“It’s brilliant, I know.” Even as he spoke, his eyes were virtually glued onto one of his dongsaengs. He felt his chest rumbling in a form of a growl when he noted the third and last male, Kai, draping his arm around the boy’s shoulder (a highly unnecessary move in Luhan’s eyes) as they contemplated which colored ball would look better on their tree and match the rather messy color scheme they had going on.

“Oh would you just stop sulking and join them? It’s clear as day you want to.” The elder tried yet again to force the stubborn deer onto his feet and towards the three friends he had been glaring coldly at for hours on end.

“No I do not want to. Decorating trees is pointless and overrated.”

“Lay would want you to join him,” Luhan felt himself stiffen momentarily as that one name ever so casually slipped past Minseok’s lips.

“This has nothing to do with that dweeb,” He shot back, although Xiumin could only laugh as he noticed his dongsaeng was still keeping a watchful eye on the dancer.

“If you say so,”

“Just leave me alone,” And with that Luhan finally allowed himself to leave the three and place his back onto Xiumin’s forever welcoming lap.

However, it wasn’t long before Luhan’s gaze drifted back onto Yixing, specifically when he heard the other shout out.

“Oi, oi, Baekhyun, c’mere!” The brunette reached out for the boy, his hand curling around the other’s wrist and tugging him closer. “You put the star up on top, okay?” He offered with his usual heartwarming smile and flashed dimple, a sight the never ceases to make Luhan’s heart quiver in delight. Oh, how he hated it.

“But I can’t reach it.” Baekhyun whined as he stood up on his tippy-toes in an attempt to place the star on the head of the tree and revealing just how far out of reach the top was for him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lay then wasted no time wrapping his arms around Baekhyun and lifting the petite male off of the ground, grinning as he watched the smaller panic briefly at the sudden height. The sight made Luhan furious.

“L-Lay!” Baekhyun giggled adorably as he clung onto the dancer to keep himself steady.

“Try now,” He urged with a cheesy grin that Luhan yearned to slap right off.

Once the gold star seemed to sit perfectly well on the tree, Kai wasted no time screeching out for the other members to feast their eyes on what the mere three of them have done.

“GUYS! IT’S READY!!!” Jongin shrieked his lungs out, the unexpected loudness provoking Luhan to jolt in surprise.

“Idiot…” The boy muttered, while Xiumin could only laugh.

“Come on, Grinch, let’s have a look.” He playfully nudged the male though it only earned him childish grumbles.

“Why? We can see it perfectly from here.”

“Oh, get up, you !”

“Urgh, fine, fine!”

With one displaying a rather angered look and the other a satisfied and fairly excited look, both Xiumin and Luhan scurried towards the tree where a few more members came to circle around and rate.

“Aaah, not bad, guys!” Chanyeol clapped his hands as he thought it was more than appropriate to applaud the hard work, since in his opinion the messy tree looked absolutely spectacular.

“Could be better, though,” Sehun shrugged, which provoked a pair of narrowed eyes from Kai.

“It could be, but I still like it! Good job boys.” Suho couldn’t refrain from ruffling Kai’s hair and praising his work.

“Isn’t the star a little wonky?” Tao spoke whilst tilting his head as if that would help distinguish if the toy was indeed placed incorrectly.

“Aah, it is!” Lay spluttered quickly. “Baekhyun? Where are you? We need to fix this now!” He abruptly reached out for said boy, however, before he could even touch the smaller, a hand was placed firmly on Yixing’s shoulder and he was tugged back.

“Luhan wants to help you fix it,” Xiumin said simply with his adorable smile.

“Luhan?”  Lay repeated, glancing around the room until his eyes rested on his “manly” hyung who was giving him a rather puzzled look.

“What?” He spat.

“Well, come on!” Lay chuckled whilst taking hold of Luhan’s hand and pulling him towards the tree, the contact triggering a faint blush to surface on the elders cheeks.

“H-huh? What are you-?” Luhan was abruptly silenced when he felt the younger’s arms travel around his lower body, face against the singer’s chest and hands on virtually on his . Luhan gulped.

“I hope you’re not afraid of heights that much, Lulu.” Lay teased, though despite the mocking tone, his expression was gentle and reassuring for he knew Luhan was rather sensitive when it came to being lifted off the stable ground. He was scared of elevators for crying out loud!

“Oh sh-shut up,” Luhan stuttered, though he wasn’t sure if it was due to the fact that he was about to be lifted or the fact that Yixing was so close that he could literally feel his heartbeat. He silently concluded that it was actually the latter.

Luhan was then propelled up by the younger, a slight squeak of alarm leaving his lips as he realizing that everyone else was no longer at eye-level. The boy’s hands then quickly darted up to begin fixing the star.

“I think that’s good.” Suho nodded.

“Are you sure? It still looks off to me,” Xiumin practically sung arrogantly.

“ you, Minseok,” Luhan cursed silently under his breath, still trying to rotate the star to make sure it was nice and straight.

“Okay, that’s perfect! You can stop now, Luhan.” Kai chirped whilst giving two thumbs up.

“Awesome,” With that, Lay slowly began lowering Luhan, handling him cautiously like he was made out of a thin layer of glass. Luhan’s arms automatically curled around Yixing’s neck to assure himself that he won’t accidentally topple over from a height that was actually laughable.

Luhan was pressed up against the younger’s chest once he was down, that same annoying heat reaching his face when he noted just how intimately close they were and that Yixing’s hands were still on his lower half. Yixing was about to say something, though sadly another member from the kitchen beat him to it.

“C’mon, guys, the cocoa is ready!” Kris’ booming voice came to hear, followed by Kyungsoo’s adorable pleas for them to hurry before it got cold.

Lay grinned at Luhan.

“You coming?” Before the elder could even splutter out a reply, Yixing had already released him and was gradually making his way towards with the kitchen with Sehun who had already playfully swung his arm over the dancer’s shoulder and began casually guessing how bad Kris’ chocolate beverages would be compared to D.O’s.

Still fairly stunned by finally have some form of contact with the younger, Luhan was plastered to the ground for a minute or two… until Xiumin gave him an encouraging though still fairly painful pat on the back.

“He touched the …” Xiumin whispered in a high-pitched voice before he too shuffled away.

“Douche…” Luhan grumbled.

Kris’ cocoa definitely wasn’t as good as Kyungsoo’s. It literally wasn’t even worth the comparison. D.O’s was like frickin Nutella gliding smoothly like silk down your throat while Wufan’s was like choking on a burnt marshmallow: rough and bitter.

Luhan cursed himself for being virtually one of the last members to enter the kitchen, for D.O’s ones were immediately stolen off of the tray while Kris’ were casually waiting for the ers who were too slow for their own good.

The singer sipped on the warm beverage through his almost clenched lips, thankful that at least it still managed to heat him up despite the rather awful taste. And being outside, he could surely use it.

“I hate snowball fights,” This time it was Suho who pouted whilst he and Luhan watched as the majority of exo began a friendly match, nailing each other with balls of snow that could be soft like clouds or even bone-crushing hard like stone.

“Huh? Why?” Luhan asked in genuine curiosity, peeking over at the leader from the corner of his eyes. Suho laughed out loud that the other couldn’t even guess.

“Really? I’m the leader for crying out loud. Any chance these imbeciles get to attack me they’ll do it with no questions asked. I don’t want to be bombarded with mountains of snow thank you very much. And not to mention last year Kai and Sehun filled my pants with that stuff.” Luhan giggled when he spotted a rather adorable frown from the younger and recalling last year’s events when indeed Suho’s junk got the privilege to shrivel up like a raisin after being buried in the chilly snow.

“Ah, yes, I remember that.” They both took another chug of cocoa (thankfully the brunette was also blessed with the more delicious cup), puckering up slightly as if they had just a lemon. Luhan chocked on his drink when he saw Kris getting pummeled in the face by one of Chen’s snowballs.

“Nice one, Chen!!!” Baekhyun laughed from behind Luhan and Suho, more specifically from one of the outdoor chairs where he was sprawled on beside Xiumin.

To be fair… Christmas did have its pleasant moments Luhan had to admit. Watching his dongsaengs all smiling and laughing and basically quite clearly enjoying each others’ company as well as taking advantage of what little free time they had. At times they would even forget that together they could actually let loose and have fun without having to worry about being exo. So during little moments like this it was rather easy for Luhan to forget why he hated this particular holiday so much… but it still was not enough to ease him into the holiday spirit. He still hated it.

“Say, why aren’t you joining in, Luhan?” Suho inquired, concerned that this seemingly manly as well as sporty member wasn’t already attacking a poor defenseless dongsaeng.

“Because I-”

“Because he doesn’t want to scar his pretty little face.” Luhan immediately yelped in surprise when that well known voice cut him off. He swiftly turned his head to be greeted with that pesky smile, provoking his tiny heart to skip a good beat or two. It all made his voice catch in his throat. However, he still managed to glare at the younger as per usual.

“Ah, Lay, makes sense.” Suho agreed with a nod and a flashed grin.

“It does not!” Luhan spat.

“Damn, it’s getting rather cold, isn’t it?” Lay observed whilst hugging himself. The minor shiver that ran down his spine didn’t go unnoticed by Luhan for his eyebrows knitted in unease if not genuine concern.

“Y-You can take my scarf… I-If you want that is…” He offered the younger his large fluffy blue scarf in an adorable stutter that made Lay chuckle.

“Nah, I couldn’t do that. Then you’ll be cold, you big cutie.” Lay kindly declined.

“Umm… how about… t-together? It’s long.” He tried again, hating that he seemed obviously eager to help the boy out.

“Alright then,” Lay grinned cheekily as he shuffled towards the older, yanking the scarf to form a loop where he could easily slide in with his hyung. Once nestled in comfortably, chest against chest, he naturally thanked Luhan who was at that time fairly red and somewhat slow… if not unresponsive.

“Hey, is that one made by Kris?” He suddenly pointed at the cup in one of the boy’s gloved hands. Luhan nodded, glossy eyes practically glued onto the others almost porcelain face.

“Can I?”

“S-Sure,” The older extended his hand out, expecting the other to take the beverage from him. However, instead, Yixing simply placed his hands over Luhan’s (a subtle move that made the other blush unintentionally) and took an experimental sip.

“Oh, that is just sick,” Lay spat it out immediately and frowned in revulsion. Luhan couldn’t refrain from giggling at the disgusted look on the dancer’s face. “It’s like something died in there… probably Kris’ cooking skills… rest in peace.”

“It could be worse though,” Luhan chuckled before attempting to take another gulp.

“Oh, no, no, no, no!” Lay swiftly snatched the mug away and slammed in on the outdoor table where the other mugs (some half-full and some already empty) were. He took hold of the creamy colored one, turning back to a surprised Luhan with a heartwarming smile.

“Have my one,” Yixing offered selflessly.

“No… it’s yours,” Luhan almost whined.

“Exactly, so I can do whatever I want with it and I want to share it!” He offered again in that oh-so-sweet tone that Luhan positively abhorred… yet loved at the same time. Urgh, how he hated how kind and compassionate Yixing could be.

Cautiously accepting the offer, Luhan reached for the mug, but it was abruptly pulled out of reach when Yixing showed signs of discomfort.

“Wait, this is a little uncomfortable…” Lay suddenly began to shift around a puzzled Luhan until his chest was against the elder’s back, arms casually gliding around the boy’s waist and pulling him closer.

“This is much better,” Lay chirped whilst this time successfully passing his hyung the drink.

Ignoring the closure as much as he possibly could, Luhan took hold of the mug and allowed his dongsaeng to begin swinging them slowly from side to side.

“Cute,” Suho commented as he watched the two embrace each other rather romantically.

“Aren’t we just!?” Lay grinned at the compliment while Luhan, on the other hand, merely glanced away and began sipping awkwardly on the warm cocoa. “Is this one better?” The younger cooed playfully in Luhan’s ear, making him shudder by the heated breath on his skin.

 The elder wordlessly bobbed his head.

“Good,” He said before turning his attention back onto the other members who were rather ungracefully ambushing each other with tanks of snowballs. Luhan, however, couldn’t seem to focus on them, not when Lay was back hugging him and his sickeningly sweet cologne was messing with his senses.

It was clear as day that Luhan quite fancied the younger dancer, relentlessly ogling him whenever he was shirtless, unconsciously leaning against him whenever they sat next to each other and of course being jealous when any other bandmate was being overly touchy-feely with him both on and off camera. But to Luhan’s unawareness every single member knew about the kid’s adorable little crush, even Lay himself, though he never spoke about it because he loved playing dumb and teasing the kid way too much. He liked the attention the boy gives him and he genuinely adores it when he sees Luhan flushed from anger whenever he “flirts” with others… specifically Baekhyun for some reason. If Yixing didn’t feel sorry for his hyung or, as a matter of fact, crave him as much as he does, he would continue being a total jerk to him for the rest of his life.

Hearing a barely audible jingle from above, Luhan tilted his head upwards to come face to face with a mistletoe ever so casually dancing above him and Lay. It was attached to a piece of string and a long stick that was, rather unsurprisingly, in Xiumin’s hands.

Utterly shocked, Luhan began flailing his arms about, mouthing out threats to the other to put that thing away before he came and ripped it away from him. Though despite the pissed off look and angry gestures, Minseok refused to pull back the mistletoe and instead began encouraging the younger by giving him a thumbs up and a bunch of kissy faces. Baekhyun was also fairly into the idea for he was holding onto Xiumin’s legs to keep him steady and his lips were also puckered in a mocking manner.

Feeling Luhan squirm in his arms, Lay turned his head to see what the commotion was all about and naturally he saw Minseok standing on his chair with Baekhyun curled around him, holding a pole as if he was fishing in the dead of winter. Knowing of course that that was unlikely, Yixing found the end of the pole and came across the same mistletoe dangling freely above him. He couldn’t help but smirk knowingly at the sight, before catching Luhan’s gaze.

“How Christmasy,” The boy chuckled while Luhan frowned, unsure of how to react by what the little plant above implies. Luhan peered up again, bottom lip imprisoned between his teeth as he silently contemplated ways he could get out of it, because, despite being caught beneath one with his all-time crush, mistletoes… haven’t exactly been his greatest friends.

It was actually one of the main reasons why Luhan despised Christmas as much as he did: bad memories, pretty much all of which revolved around mistletoes. A few years back he had gotten rejected by someone he at that timed admired, he had gotten thrown up on by a drunk girl (as well as a guy. Not his favorite moments.), he had also been shoved away by a girl who was overly eager to sink her claws into the poor guy Luhan was about to kiss, resulting in Luhan smashing his head against the corner of a table and getting a concussion. The list just goes on.

Not once had he had a successful mistletoe experience and now with Lay beside him, Luhan was immeasurably frightened that something terrible will happen to Yixing or even worse, something that will ruin their friendship.

“It’s cute, isn’t it?” Lay inquired in a soft whisper.

“What is?” Luhan tilted his head preciously to the side.

“The whole mistletoe ordeal. I think it’s really sweet. Probably one of my favorite Christmas traditions.” The elder snorted at such cheesy comments, especially when he personally viewed it as the tackiest of all traditions.

“Do you want to?” Yixing asked with a bright smile that revealed his cute little dimple. Luhan froze for a split second, feeling disorientated all of a sudden for he had no clue how he was going to find his way out of this despite trying his hardest to come up with something. But as always it was just pointless to try to dodge the bullet.

“D-Do you want to…?” Luhan decided to just give in and allow to mistletoe to release whatever monstrosity it had under its sleeve. It was a pointless fight after all.

“Of course I frickin want to!” The younger cheered while Luhan’s cheeks, naturally, turned a few shades pinker.

Lay swiftly snatching the mug and nailed it back on the table before shaking off his gloves. With his hands cupping Luhan’s heated cheeks and a rather arrogant smirk fiddling with his lips, Lay slowly leaned in. Luhan could virtually hear nothing but his own raging heartbeat as the person he quite clearly adored the most was inching closer and closer.

It was the strangest feeling Luhan had ever felt the moment Lay’s lips brushed ever so slightly over his pink, fluffy ones, like butterflies in your stomach yet not quite. It was far too aggressive and rare occurring to be that considered particular feeling. Could it be a mistletoe thing? Whatever it was, Luhan was positive he didn’t want it to stop, so out of instinct he leaned in closer to Yixing in hopes that the feeling would intensify.

Sadly, before it could, Lay pulled away and instantly revealed his usual happy-go-lucky smile. But then it hit Luhan: nothing happened. Well, besides that fiery fiesta going on his stomach, everything went rather… smoothly. He didn’t faint, he didn’t bite his tongue or anything along the lines. Lay too seemed to be okay so… maybe he disliked Christmas a little less now… but only a little.

“I told you it’s sweet,” Lay his lips, “Just like the traces of cocoa on your lips, Lulu.”

“Nice one, Lay!” Xiumin yelled all of a sudden, a mighty thumbs up appearing once again. Luhan couldn’t refrain from blushing and dipping his head in embarrassment when Yixing laughed at the elder’s God-awful cheerleading that was technically a bunch of unnecessary howling.

“I hate him…” Luhan muttered in his common grumpy manner, hiding away under the scarf as if refusing to face that facts that he was friends with that thing.

“He means well though,” Lay chuckled. “If it weren’t him I-”

“THE CUPCAKES ARE READY!!” D.O. unexpectedly screeched from an open window, waving his arms about and gesturing for the other members to come inside and eat.

Startled by Kyungsoo’s loud voice, Baekhyun jolted in surprise, releasing Xiumin’s legs in the process. Ultimately Minseok lost his balance and plummeted forward, the long pole he had still firmly in his grasp whacking Luhan horrendously across the head.

In the end, Luhan was knocked unconscious, leaving three males completely dumbfounded and unsure of what the hell to do next.

“My bad,” Baekhyun chuckled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Yikes…” Xiumin murmured in guilt as he stood before the boy’s laying figure.

“Yeah, ing Yikes!” Yixing spluttered. “You just knocked him out!”

“Oh, gosh, thanks for telling me, Lay. I didn’t notice.” Minseok hissed, automatically waving the pole about in a form of defense.

“Jesus, give me that, you little , before you kill someone.” The younger snatched the item and flung it aside. “You have terrible timing, you know that? And I was going to confess to him…”

“I guess Luhan wasn’t kidding when he said mistletoes don’t like him.” A nervous chuckle paraded past Xiumin’s lips. “But hey, you can always confess to him later. He’ll wake up eventually.”

“Just shut up, please,”

“Okay,” They both paused for a brief moment, though naturally Minseok was incapable of staying silent for very long. “The cupcakes are going to get cold though…” He thought out loud.

“Or the others will eat them first…” Baekhyun wondered as well, while Lay let out a tired sigh.

“Alright,” Yixing scooped up the petite boy, “We’ll continue this conversation after we’ve stuffed our faces with cupcakes,”

a.n. Like I said... I have idea what this was supposed to be xD
               Christmas really does bring out my creative side I see owO
               Forgive me if it was too all over the place.
               Thank you sweeties for reading! I lurbs you all 
               and may you have a happy Christmas! ♥