The winter morning was just cold enough to discourage the Birman neko from leaving the comfort of his burgundy duvet. Yifan reached for his cellular on a side-table only to have his hand come in contact with the uncomfortably chilly air. His furry ears twitched irritably and he snatched the cellular. Checking his messages, he waited for the heat to turn on. Just thinking about the trek across freezing wood floors made the fur on his tail bristle. Yifan pulled the covers up over his head, allowing him to read the texts without his hands freezing in the frigid air of his room.

There were a few texts from his friends, or as close to friends as he would get. They were probably closer to antagonists in a mutually abusive relationship, namely Baekhyun, Jongin, Sehun, and Luhan. He guessed Joonmyun, Chanyeol, and Yixing weren’t too terrible. Joonmyun was too nice for his own good. Calling Yixing spacey would be an understatement. And Chanyeol, well, Chanyeol was alright. A quick scroll through his texts reminded him of a party Luhan had scheduled for Christmas Eve, which happened to be tomorrow. Christmas Eve, and Christmas for that matter, meant presents, food, and Luhan telling inappropriate stories or doing indecent things with Sehun. The tip of Yifan’s tail twitched as he thought about it.

Yifan heard a dull hum as the heater . Despite the fact that the heat was now on, he would still need to wait a bit longer as hot air washed over the floor, neutralising the chill. Yifan’s eyes drifted across fifty-something messages from Luhan. They were all about whether Yifan would be coming to his party or not. Tempted as the Birman was to give a nugatory response, the annoyance brought about by the stream of complaint texts in reply would outweigh the satisfaction of making Luhan panic momentarily. The pile of presents on the table in his foyer was the biggest reason he was going to the party. He had spent so much time on the presents to his friends; it would be a shame to not deliver them, especially the large box set off to the side a little with an excessively large red bow attached to the top.

The vibration of his cellular snapped him out of his contemplations. It was another text from Luhan asking for final confirmation that Yifan would be attending his party.

“Wu Yifan. Are you coming to my Christmas party tomorrow or not?” the text read. Internally, Yifan could hear his friend’s sassy voice and see the boy standing with a hip popped out and hands on his hips. The tall boy wasn’t sure whether to laugh or roll his eyes. “If you don’t come, I’m going to have to do so much rearranging of things in my house,” he huffed over text.

“Don’t worry, I'm coming,” Yifan typed with a sigh he knew Luhan couldn’t actually hear.

“Great! I’ll see you at 6:30 tomorrow!” Luhan all but chirped via the text. “And you realise that if you hadn’t replied by 2:00, I would have just removed you from the plans of the evening,” he added huffily as an after note.

Yifan’s eyes drifted up to the time at the top of the screen. It was already one in the afternoon. No wonder Luhan had sent so many messages. He had begun the spam at eight in the morning. Yifan wondered how he survived having Luhan as a friend. The boy was just so high maintenance. Perhaps it was because, despite all of his fussing and nagging, Luhan was a good friend when it really came down to it.

Yifan had probably given the heater enough time to warm the place up, so he popped his head above the covers. The temperature of the air seemed warm enough. Yifan shed the covers and got out of bed, only to discover that the warmth in the air had not quite seeped into the floor. He found himself hopping to the bathroom with all of the fur on his tail bristling as he felt pins and needles of cold in his feet.

By the time Yifan had finished all of his morning, well afternoon at this point, routine, it was two in the afternoon. His cellular vibrated from the counter indicating a text from Chanyeol. “Did you reply to Luhan? I know you were planning on going but he was flipping out about whether you were actually going or not. You know how he is.”

“Well that’s what makes him unique, or something. That’s what friends say right?”

“Hahaha. Yeah.” Yifan could almost hear his friend’s laughter through the text, could almost see that strange and endearing way he scrunched his face when he laughed. He mentally slapped himself, stopping the thoughts in their tracks. His tail twitched and curled of its own accord and he glowered at it. “So what are you doing today? I hope you don’t plan to only lounge about all day long,” Chanyeol chided in text form.

“Well I’ve done all of my Christmas shopping and don’t particularly feel like braving the drama of last-minute shopping. What are you doing?”

“I actually have last-minute shopping to do.” Yifan paused as he read this.

“Want me to come with you? I’m not doing anything today.” He actually slapped his forehead after hitting send.

“You sure you want to come shopping with me? It’s not going to be very exciting.”

“Yeah. I’m fine with it. Where should I meet you?”

“How about we meet down at the ramyeon shop by the train station in the shopping district?”

“Sure. What time do you want to meet?”

“How does 4:00 sound?  That should give you plenty of time to go over your morning ritual and get ready and try on like 50 outfits before you decide on something totally random. :P”

“Is that any way to treat your hyung? How impudent,” Yifan replied sarcastically.

“Just don’t be too early. I’m going to be coming from somewhere else. This last minute shopping is so troublesome. I have to run all over to find things for everyone. * sigh*”

“Okay. See you at 4:00.”

Yifan made the mistake of arriving early and found the reason why Chanyeol wanted him to arrive later. It was 3:45 when Yifan arrived at the ramyeon shop. He was standing beside the entrance when he spotted his tall, curly-haired friend. The other giant was about to wave when he saw his friend walking alongside a girl, a Turkish Van They were both laughing and it looked as if they were having a good time and their tails were both curling and swishing happily. For some reason, something in Yifan’s throat tightened and his heart sank. The worst part came as they approached a parting point as Chanyeol headed toward the ramyeon shop and the girl headed toward the train station. Just before they parted, she pushed up onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek as a farewell. He blushed a vibrant crimson and his tail twitched embarrassedly.

Yifan recognised the girl. She was often found hanging around Chanyeol. Her name was Kwon Nara or something like that and she was beautiful, smart, and charismatic Yifan couldn’t identify why seeing her kiss him made him feel so, so, so what? He couldn’t identify what he felt; all he knew was that he was not pleased with this turn of events.

When Chanyeol noticed Yifan standing by the ramyeon shop, the blush drained from his face. He knew that Yifan had seen the entire exchange and had no idea how to justify what had just transpired. His tail drooped as he tried to explain himself.

“Oh. Uhm. Hi, Yifan...” he began uncomfortably. Yifan must have had a scary expression on because Chanyeol seemed to be getting more nervous by the second, so he relaxed his face.

“Sorry I interrupted that,” Yifan said, with an unintended hint of venom.

“It isn’t what you’re thinking,” Chanyeol tried in vain.

“What wasn’t?” Yifan asked, more neutrally this time.

“It wasn’t a date or anything. Nara was just helping me with something.”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” Yifan lied. Chanyeol seemed to relax a little. “And it’s fine if you’re dating her, I was just surprised.” The concern painted across Chanyeol’s face was not alleviated in the least. The Selkirk Rex inhaled as if he wanted so say more but decided against it and simply sighed. “Why don’t we get to shopping then?” Yifan suggested awkwardly. Chanyeol just nodded.

They never managed to quite dispel all of the awkwardness in the air but after a significant silence, Chanyeol got a conversation started. “Isn’t it nice to not have classes for a while? I love winter break. It’s also nicer than summer break because it snows. The humidity is uncomfortable.” Yifan grunted in the affirmative. Chanyeol’s bushy tail swished nervously.

“Where do you have left to go?” Yifan asked.

The Rex’s tail relaxed, relieved that he now had the opportunity for a change of topic. “I need to go to Sephora for Baekhyun’s girlfriend Yoonjo. I need to get an SNSD album for Baekhyun. I’m getting some vide games for Jongin. Yixing is going to get a new set of headphones. I can buy most of this at the electronics store...” Yifan was only half listening as Chanyeol explained what he planned to do. Yifan was jarred out of his reverie when he heard the name of the young Turkish Van Chanyeol was with earlier.

“I’m going to get Nara a necklace because she’s been helping me a lot recently.” Yifan’s tail twitched in response to this. Either Chanyeol didn’t notice or he chose to ignore it.

The afternoon passed slowly and thoughts of Nara continued to flit through Yifan’s mind. After Chanyeol bought the necklace, a beautiful little silver thing with a heart-shaped pendant, Yifan’s gaze kept drifting back to the little blue box with white snowflakes and teal indigo tissue paper peeking out the top. The gift shouldn’t be bothering him as much as it was. He and Chanyeol were just friends. This was just a feeling of protectiveness wasn’t it? He just wasn’t ready to give his little brother up, right? It continued to bother Yifan even after they had said goodbye and Yifan had gone home.

The tall Birman regarded the large present with a red bow addressed to his “little brother” apprehensively. He wasn’t exactly sure whether he wanted to go to Luhan’s party to see Nara get her present from Chanyeol. It was too late to back out now. Luhan would have an absolute fit if Yifan tried to cancel now.

--

After ringing the doorbell, Yifan was greeted by a young-looking Abyssinian wearing reindeer antlers. “Welcome!” he chirped. “You’re the last one to arrive, but at least you came.”

“The antlers look fitting on you,” Yifan commented on a completely unrelated note.

“I do not look like a deer!’ Luhan huffed indignantly. A Siamese appeared silently behind his boyfriend with the slightest smirk on his lips.

“You make a very cute reindeer,” the Siamese purred into Luhan’s ear before wrapping his arms around the other’s waist and planting a short kiss on the shorter boy’s neck.

Luhan giggled in response. “Oh you!” He turned around and gave Sehun a peck on the lips. The taller boy’s tail s around his boyfriend’s waist and pulled the two closer.

“Thank you,” Yifan grumbled, edging around the couple who had begun snogging in the foyer. “I’ll just leave your presents on the table then, shall I?”

He sighed and wandered off to the dining room where the rest of the festivities were happening. Yifan began to distribute the presents and the gift exchange began. He saved the biggest present for last. By this time, Luhan and Sehun had returned from the foyer with hair tussled and Luhan’s antlers slightly askew. Before Chanyeol could exchange presents with Yifan, Luhan and Sehun, almost as if on cue, called everyone together for games.

“What are we, ten?” Baekhyun joked.

“Now, now,” Yoonjo chided. “Let’s let the children have their fun and just play along,” she giggled.

“Who are you calling kids?” Luhan pouted.

“No one, dear,” Nara replied with a soft smile. Yifan worried his bottom lip as he tried to ignore the necklace around her neck.

“Then let’s get the party started,” Sehun laughed.

Somehow Luhan and Sehun, whether they were aware of it or not, managed to keep Chanyeol and Yifan apart for the majority of the evening; Chanyeol seemed to be enjoying himself regardless and for some reason would never quite meet eye contact. Yifan was worried that he had offended his Rex friend the day prior by getting worked up about Nara. Finally, toward the end of the festivities, Yifan managed to grab Chanyeol and bring him to a room out of sight of Luhan and Sehun.

“Are you angry with me? For yesterday? About Nara? I’m fine with it if you want to go out with her...” Yifan rambled. In response, Chanyeol just shook his head.

“That isn’t it at all. I’m not mad at you. Nara was just helping me pick out your Christmas present.” Yifan was too surprised to respond. “She’s just a really good friend,” he continued.

“So you weren’t avoiding me?” Chanyeol shook his head in reply.

“For some reason, Luhan and Sehun were managing to keep us from talking this evening,” Chanyeol chuckled. “But I guess like this, I can give you my Christmas present. Close your eyes.”

“Why?” Yifan asked dumbly.

“Just do it,” Chanyeol replied. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.” Yifan begrudgingly closed his eyes. Moments later, he felt a warm pressure on his lips that took a moment to register. His eyes flew open and he saw Chanyeol’s closed ones. His heart was beating painfully fast and his stomach was turning somersaults but it felt good somehow. When Chanyeol finally pulled back, he looked worried. “I just wanted to tell you how I felt. I couldn’t quite figure out how to put it but Nara said that this would make things very clear. I hope you don’t hate me.” His cheeks were quickly heating up but Yifan was still speechless.

It took a while for him to finally find his words but when he did, they just came flowing from his mouth. “No it’s okay I mean I’m fine with it and I kinda liked it and I think I like you a lot I mean I felt really jealous when you were with Nara and I thought that you two were dating and it kinda hurt and,” Chanyeol cut him off with another kiss, this one much shorter. Yifan cleared his throat.

“Do you want to try this then?”

“Like Luhan and Sehun?”

“Not quite like them, but yeah. Want to try a relationship?” Yifan nodded and replied with a kiss of his own.

“Yeol, it’s snowing outside.” They both turned to look out the window at the soft white blobs falling from the sky.

“It’s beautiful,” Chanyeol breathed, eyes twinkling.

“It really is,” Yifan replied, twining his tail with Chanyeol’s. “Merry Christmas.”