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[ Secret Santa Gift for Judaryuu! ]

{ Title } It’s a Lot Like Christmas

{ Series } Magi: The Labyrinth of Magi [ Magi Disclaimer ]

{ Verse } AU

{ Ship } JuHaku, Hakucest [ YuuRen ], [ Implied ] Koumei/OC

{ Summary } [ T ] After the year they’ve had, it’s little wonder that a good lot of the Ren family choose to abandon old traditions in honor of starting new ones.

“Judal—“

Judal didn’t even wait for Hakuryuu to finish his sentence, just let out a long suffering groan and popped the trunk of their car open again.

“What now?” he asked into the trunk, leaning over to begin rearranging things to fit whatever else was going to be crammed into the quickly diminishing space.

“Kouen text me,” Hakuryuu sighed, emerging from the garage door, his arms laden with cookware. “Apparently Hakuei took their cast irons so I have to bring mine.”

“So do we need the kitchen sink too? Because there’s still room on the roof—“

Hakuryuu forcefully knocked his shoulder into his fiancé, stopping his sarcastic speech short. He managed to find enough space in the trunk to shove his pans, grimacing and fighting the urge to unpack the whole car and pack it again. If they hadn’t done it three times already, he’d consider it.

“Is that all?” he asked, hands on hips.

“Unless you decide you want the sink.”

“Judal.”

Judal relented, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and mouthing things off as he filled out a mental checklist. Hakuryuu waited patiently for him to finish, shoulders sagging with relief when he was given a definitive nod.

“Yep everything’s in the car. Key’s in the flower pot out front for Aladdin, cats are fed. Did you text him’n Alibaba?”

“Yes. They’re coming over later tonight.”

“And staying through Christmas?”

“Yes.”

“Did you lock our bedroom door?”

Hakuryuu paused, considered, muttered a short no and darted back into the house. When he returned, he shut the garage door behind himself and locked it. Judal bounced impatiently on his heels, his hands stuffed in his pockets so he wouldn’t be simultaneously toying with his incredibly long hair.

They loaded themselves into the car and Hakuryuu put the keys in the ignition. As soon as the engine began purring he went for the heat, turning it up all the way and pressing the button beside the knob that would start warming the front seats. He personally didn’t much care for the feature, but Judal was either hot or shivering with no in between.

“Any stops before we go?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“You still want to take over driving when it gets dark?”

Judal nodded his head, already nestled down in the seat with his knees drawn up. He would remain in that position until the heat worked its magic and he deemed the car a comfortable sweltering temperature, then unfold himself. Hakuryuu spared a moment to lean over and kiss the top of his head, for which he was rewarded with a pleased murmur.

To be fair, the Ren’s had never been a particularly functional family to begin with. But it was amazing what an overturned murder conviction and accusations of incest could do to a family.

The whole family was a disproportioned collection of marriages, divorces, deaths in the family, uncles who became fathers, cousins who became siblings and conspiracies so eclectic it was a wonder they didn’t have their own Wikipedia page.

Perhaps the crowning horrific happenstance for the family had come seven years prior when Koutoku Ren had mysteriously met his end to a heart attack. The man wasn’t in perfect health, it wouldn’t have been all that shocking if not for the fact that his problems lay in his lungs not his heart. A point carefully noted in the murder trial of his wife, Gyokuen.

It didn’t stun the family too heavily. The eldest of the children had been waiting nearly a decade for their snake of a mother to slip up and make some fatal error in whatever scheme she was next to enact, and they’d pounced on the opportunity. While they were at it, they brought into question the death of their own father ten years prior, and that led to an investigation that brought to light a slew of crimes dating back long before Gyokuen even set eyes on Hakutoku Ren.

None of these went to trial, all of them accusations without proof, but Koutoku’s death did. It was an open and shut case, but she still had the audacity to look enraged when she was pronounced guilty.

A majority of the family celebrated. Some did not. For the next five years, life progressed more normally than it ever had. Hakuryuu in particular felt the freeing effects of his mother’s absence, experiencing not just a change in his family life, but his personality as well. He became confident and strong willed like his brothers, the spitting image of the eldest in most people’s opinions.

He moved out, he went to school, got a job he loved, fell hard and fast for a red eyed boy with a Cheshire grin and got engaged. For all intents and purposes, life was absolutely grand.

And then, of course, Gyokuen accused her own sons of incest.

It came so startlingly out of the blue that Hakuryuu actually dropped the mug of tea he’d been holding at the time and shattered it all over the floor, still in his pajamas on a Sunday morning on the phone with his cousin.

For the most part, they convinced themselves it was something that would just blow over and would never see the inside of a court room. One more conspiracy to add to the list. Hakuren and Hakuyuu were grown men, not adolescents, and there was very little to be done in such a case.

But the whole thing snowballed. The accusation of incest led to implications that the whole case against her had been a set up so her sons could maintain their illicit relationship without her meddling. A new investigation was launched, more Ren family scandals came to light. Old bones that wanted to stay buried, and very well should have.

They almost quashed her nonsense when Kouen came forward and admitted that if they were talking in terms of incest then it should be noted that Gyokuen had attempted to seduce him. There was more to that story that would stay between Kouen, Hakuyuu and a few court officials, but his bravery in coming forward didn’t go unnoticed. Until that moment had been someone Hakuryuu tolerated without much like or dislike, but following it he had a distinct amount of respect for his cousin, and it showed.

One thing led to another. Someone spoke to someone who talked to someone else, it rolled onwards and onwards, eating up an entire year of their lives. Rifts in the family opened, people took sides, Hakuryuu cried into his fiancé’s shoulder out of frustration more times than he wanted to count.

And then one day she was just free. Her conviction overturned, the investigations all dropped, and mommy dearest on the front steps of the family manor house.

Hakuyuu had made a point of calling every single family member at least twice that night, and Hakuryuu at least four. He’d never say it, but Hakuryuu suspected Kouen to be the only other person to get that much concern from his brother.

“So did Kougyoku decide if she was coming or not?”

“Not. Apparently she’s going to try to tough it out with her sisters and if things get to be too much, she’ll go to Ka Kobun’s.”

Judal whistled, his eyes never straying from the handheld game he was intently thumbing his way through. A new release in the series was out this month and he knew for a fact at least one family member had gotten it for him. He’d been speeding his way through the previous games to refresh his memory in preparation.

“Good luck to her. Did Koumei decide to stay behind with her?”

“No,” Hakuryuu glanced briefly between the road and the GPS. “Koumei is coming.”

“Are the ladies?”

Judal grinned when he saw his fiancé cracking a half smile out of the corner of his eye.

“He found someone to watch his pigeons while he’s gone.”

“What about that one girl he was seeing,” he paused to swear under his breath and turn his system off then back on again, resetting. “The one with uh—What’s it called.”

“Somnophilia?”

“Yeah that.”

“I think she went back to her family’s estate in…” Hakuryuu paused to think about it. “Wherever she comes from. I’ve never met her. Have you?”

“I think? Maybe? I don’t know it could have been one of your cousins.”

“I have enough of them it might have been.”

Judal laughed, the sound filling the car like a collection of shimmering bubbles might fill the sky on a summer day. It carried on longer than what he’d said deserved, but Hakuryuu did nothing to silence him, indulging in the sounds of his fiancé’s laughter with a soft smile.

They turned onto the highway and Judal returned his attention to his game.

“Are there going to be enough rooms for everyone, or are we sharing?” he asked, though Hakuryuu suspected he didn’t actually care.

“Hakuren said there’s enough for everyone.” he assured, not particularly concerned himself. “If there had been more of us some people would have had to double up.”

“Uh-huh.” Out of the corner of his eye Hakuryuu saw sly crimson irises peek over at him. “And do we gotta behave?”

If they hadn’t been on a highway, he would have returned the coy look. His hand itched to reach out for his mischievous lover and this urge he gave into, his right hand reaching over to brush through dark hair. Judal leaned into the touch like a satisfied cat, eyes drifting back to his game.

“In Kouen’s own words; If we can’t hear it, we don’t care.”

“He meant that for all of us?”

“He did.”

You would think that the thing to really split the family apart would have been the accusation that the eldest and most revered of their siblings were committing a terrible taboo. You would be incorrect. Despite the implications, there was nothing illicit to the relationship between Hakuyuu and Hakuren.

The whole family had been aware of it for years.

As stated, the Ren family never professed to be functional by any stretch of the word. By the time that it came out among them that the eldest Ren brothers were romantically involved they had been through everything from near bankruptcy to enough family deaths to fill an entire cemetery plot. The fallout of the admission was surprisingly minimal.

Were there those among them who disapproved? Of course. To begin with, Kouen had been among them, along with Hakuei and a handful of their other cousins. In any other family this could have led to public disgrace, the brothers being forcefully separated, worse. In their case however it mostly culminated in the equivalent of a family squabble.

The truth was that, by then, the lot of them had been through so much both individually and as a family that one more line crossed didn’t come as all that much of a surprise. Even those who disapproved couldn’t be altogether scornful. Amidst everything that had happened, the brothers had managed to find something solid and good that they could rely on.

Granted, this involved falling in love with one another and there was a host of reasons why that was incredibly impractical, starting with it being illegal, but that had never stopped a Ren before.

Even Gyokuen had been aware of it, but she’d never much offered an opinion either here or there on the matter. Hakuryuu, for his part, had been too young to fully understand why his brothers being in a relationship was either bad or wrong. Having grown up with it as a simple fact, even by the time he did understand, he didn’t really care. They were the best men he knew, and they deserved one another. It wasn’t like their family didn’t already have an entire armoire of skeletons.

The shock that came with Gyokuen’s later accusation came not from the subject but from the fact she’d made the accusation to begin with. When the brothers had initially admitted to their relationship it had all been handled inside the borders of the family. After all, what would involving outsiders accomplish?

They would be doused in scandal, possibly ruined by it. Hakuyuu and Hakuren would be separated and all that would have achieved was misery for them and anyone they cared about. Further strain would have been put on an already precarious familial situation—It had made more sense to just live and let live.

By bringing things into the open Gyokuen had jeopardized not just her own sons but the entire family. Since, Hakuyuu and Hakuren had had to act as if they were living beneath a microscope, only safe within the confines of their own home and company of close friends and family. It had been awful.

Though, considering their mother had almost killed the both of them and Hakuryuu a decade previously, the fact she was willing to put them at risk wasn’t really all that shocking.

They drove until it got dark. Judal alternated between playing his games, switching music every fifteen minutes and talking to Hakuryuu about everything and nothing. Every now and then a song he liked would come on and he would turn it up a little louder and sing along, occasionally prompting his fiancé to join him. Hakuryuu obliged him several times, falling silent when the higher notes came in.

The last two hours before the sunset were spent with Judal napping, hunched down in his seat with his head against the window, the radio stuck on a station that seemed insistent on playing nothing but badly covered Christmas carols. Hakuryuu didn’t change it, knowing that it would wake Judal, and quietly endured the grating pop singer’s voices.

Eventually they pulled over to the side of the road and Hakuryuu turned the radio off, rousing Judal from his slumber. They ate dinner from tupperware in the front seats of the car, pointing out the stars winking to life outside the windshield. At one point, Hakuryuu asked Judal to point out the constellations to him but spent the whole fifteen minute spiel watching his face rather than the sky.

Judal loved stars, in fact they’d met in an astronomy class that Hakuryuu had initially had incredibly limited interest in. He’d thought that the long haired man next to him, at the time dressed like he’d just been to a wake that doubled as a mosh pit, was going to be incredibly distracting to his education and had been tempted to move seats.

In an odd reversal of roles, Hakuryuu had been absolutely correct. Except, it was less Judal lazing around and making it difficult for Hakuryuu to keep his focus on their professor. Much more Judal being enraptured by every single moment of every single lesson and Hakuryuu having absolutely zero ability to draw his attention away from the way Judal’s eyes shone with excitement each and every time they learned something new.

It hadn’t even been an uphill battle. Hakuryuu had gone home the same night and for the first time in history neglected his homework in favor of spending the whole night scouring the internet to learn every single thing he could about the cosmos. He’d still had trouble following all of the conversation he managed to initiate with Judal the next day, which he was almost certain he’d been aware of.

To this day, he could spend hours listening to Judal go on and on about the skies overhead, partly out of interest and partly the desire to watch his excitement.

“…And right there is Caelum—“

“We’re heading north. Caelum is behind us.”

Judal grinned cheekily, swinging his head around to face his fiancé. Hakuryuu sipped his water.

“I was paying attention.” he huffed, pretending to be put out.

“Uh-huh. I also said Leo Minor was Ursa Major.”

The feigned haughtiness dropped with a muttered curse, which earned a laugh in return.

“They’re next to each other.” Hakuryuu sighed.

“You were sta—aring.”

“At my beautiful fiancé.”

His playfulness melted away immediately, replaced by sincere warmth. They leaned over the gear stick to share a kiss that didn’t last half as long as either of them would have liked. So they leaned in for a second one, and a third, and if it hadn’t been for the inconvenience of the front seats of the car, they would have gone on kissing a while longer.

They finished eating and Judal cleaned up while Hakuryuu got out of the car, stretching himself far enough to pop the joints in his back a few times. He went around the passenger’s side, rolling his eyes when Judal chose to scramble between seats instead of bear the cold outdoors.

Once settled into their seats and buckled in, Hakuryuu squirmed his way into a comfortable position, sparing a moment to turn the radio to something soft and melodic before closing his eyes. The car pulled back out onto the road they’d left, Judal guiding them carefully back to the highway.

Getting away for the holidays had been Hakuren’s idea. It had been on almost everyone’s minds at one point or another during the past few months, but he was the one who acted on it.

Usually, the holidays were a pleasant time of year in the family. Despite differences in opinions and life choices, they all seemed to have a rather mutual agreement to tolerate one another for a few weeks a year in the interest of tradition. There had been good years and bad years but, predominantly, it was the most startling normal time for the family.

But as has been said; it’s truly astonishing what an overturned murder conviction can do to a family.

Hakuyuu had resigned himself to bearing the usual family affairs in stoic silence, his emotions carefully tucked away inside his ribcage somewhere near his steely heart where only Hakuren could manage to work them free. Hakuryuu, for his part, blatantly refused to be within the same mile of his mother and had outright said that he and Judal would not be coming home for the holidays so long as she were present.

Koumei had, however subtly, expressed serious doubts about allowing her to come. Kouha had gone a more crude approach by simply inquiring if everyone had gone fucking insane even thinking of letting her near any of them again.

It was Kouen’s silence that had seemingly driven Hakuren to action. Since his involvement trying to silence her accusations against the brothers, he’d grown increasingly uncomfortable at the mere mention of Gyokuen’s name. And if there was anything Hakuren Ren was; it was protective.

He found a place in the country, some cliché, storybook cabin the looked right off the front of a Christmas card on the outside but held all the modern conveniences of comfort inside. There was snow and a forest of fir trees and no major cities for miles, the perfect getaway.

Hakuren had skipped over even inviting his little brother and invited Judal instead, well aware Hakuryuu would warily wait for their eldest brother’s decision before making his own. Judal said they would love to come. Kouha answered for both his brothers, and his younger sister, who later intervened to say she’d think about it but was delighted by the invitation.

Since the plan was in motion by the time he learned of it, Hakuyuu relented without much fuss. As if he really would have argued, he could hardly refuse his siblings anything, especially when they were all asking for something.

When it came to asking Hakuei, however, things almost fell apart. Hakuryuu could remember spending almost an hour and a half having perhaps the first screaming match of his entire life with the sister who had practically raised him. Judal had come home halfway through, just in time to hear Hakuryuu demand for about the fifth time how in the name of every possible god Hakuei could even think of forgiving their mother. Never mind what she’d done to him, to Hakuren, Hakuyuu, Kouen—What about all the other people she had killed over her twisted lifetime?

Somehow, Hakuei was convinced that despite all her wrongdoing, their mother was their mother and that should be good enough for them. She’d never hurt them right? ( No, Hakuryuu had reminded her viciously, she never hurt you. )

The night ended with Hakuryuu crying angry tears and a new rift forming in the fractured family. The next week was rough. For the first time in memory, the four dark haired siblings hardly spoke to one another.

In the end, rather than ruin their plans the argument actually redoubled the effort put into them. An entire week was to be spent in the country home, each member of the group contributing to groceries, activities and gifts. Of course they hit a handful of snags, such as the country house being a day and a half’s drive away and the fact Hakuren had failed to check if the house was stocked with anything besides furniture.

This was why Kouen had spent the last two weeks using his business voice on the phone at all hours to get the heat and water turned on, the electricity regulated, and Hakuryuu was sitting in a car jam packed with a majority of his extensive cookware collection.

But it was to be a holiday free of Gyokuen, spent in good company, and that was what mattered.

It was mid-morning the next day when they arrived at the cabin in the woods. They had only gotten lost once, though it had been a pleasant detour through a scenic route rather than a frustrating mishap.

Picturesque did not do the building justice. The cabin stood two stories tall and broad enough to make your eyes sweep from one side of it to another. Its front faced the small dirt road they had driven up, the front pathway sloping down a small incline to meet them. The roof was slanted on either side and boasted not one but two chimneys, one already puffing a gentle waft of smoke into the clear morning air.

A clean semicircle of fir trees encircled the cabin in a swath of deep, snow covered green. There was mostly untouched snow on the ground and icicles hanging from the edges of the roof and bottoms of the windows. The front door had a wreathe on it with a red bow.

“Whoa…” Judal breathed, standing with his door open staring up at the cabin. “Ren sure can pick ‘em.”

“He’s impulsive,” Hakuryuu agreed. “But the more rash his decisions, the better they seem to work out…”

“…I feel a little bit like you should carry me over the doorway.”

“Would it be terribly peculiar to admit that I have the urge to?”

They shared a look, seriously considering it a moment, but before they could come to a decision one way or the other the front door burst open.

Hakuren Ren’s hair was wild as ever and his smile seemed to be twice as bright. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a pair of khaki pants and white socks, but this didn’t stop him from leaping off the front porch and darting the distance between the door and them.

Hakuryuu didn’t try to protest, but had the good sense to shut the car door before Hakuren went barreling into it in his excitement. The older brother threw his arms around his sibling, dwarfing the younger in size and taking full advantage of it to squish him as close as possible.

“You guys made it!” he crowed, rocking back and forth and making Hakuryuu let out weak protests. “You’re the last ones, everyone else is here! Man it’s good to see you! Judal, get over here!”

Judal just grinned and vaulted over the roof of the car, ducking his way into the older Ren’s embrace and helping in keeping his fiancé a well cocooned captive. Hakuryuu made a sound that was meant to be displeased.

This lasted all of twenty seconds before Hakuren’s brain seemed to register that he was standing in the snow in socks and without a coat on.

“Oh god cold cold cold--!”

Hakuren let them go and hopped back, dancing from one foot to another and from the doorway, someone sighed. Kouen leaned against the doorframe, shaking his head.

“You’re the one who ran out without shoes.” he called out. “Hakuyuu is going to be annoyed if you get sick.”

Hakuren, ever mature, stuck his tongue out at his cousin.

“Give me something to carry, I’m already out here!” he said, gesturing to their open trunk. “You guys look like you have half your house in there!”

“Well if someone had checked if the house was livable I could have come up sooner and done this in parts.” Hakuryuu accused huffily, going around to the trunk and dragging out a box. “But somebody left it to the last minute.”

“Yeah yeah yeah I love you too Ryuu.”

Hakuryuu dropped the box unceremoniously into his brother’s arms with a withering look, making him stumble under the weight before he went tottering off back towards the cabin. Kouen stepped aside to let him in and jogged his way from the porch to the car. Wordlessly, he was handed a pair of suitcases, which he hefted and carried back inside without complaint.

Between the four of them, they managed to unload the car in surprisingly short order. Hakuryuu mostly handed things off to the other three, instructing them on what went to which area of the cabin home. When the car was empty, he slipped into the driver’s seat again to pull the car around to the side of the cabin. Hakuren, during all of this, had not bothered with shoes.

The inside of the cabin was spacious, the front door opening immediately into the open central area. To the left were a set of wooden stairs leading up to the second floor, which rather than being closed off from the lower floor was left open, a balcony-like walkway wrapping around the walls to provide access to the various rooms of the upper floor.

Almost immediately to the left was the kitchen. It was massive, open, and boasted a six flame stove, a pair of ovens stacked one on top of the other and set into the right most corner of the house, a wood fire oven that had already been lit. The fridge looked like it could hold enough food for a small army and the counters were being taken up by the contents of Hakuryuu’s prized kitchen they’d brought along.

Judal whistled lowly.

“Hakuryuu’s going to lose it when he sees this.” he said to no one in particular.

“Think it’ll make up for not telling him the house was empty earlier?” Hakuren questioned. His tone was joking, but there was an underlying sincerity.

Judal grinned at him widely.

“He’s gonna kiss you, Ren.”

“Yuu will get jealous.”

The quip came from Kouen and was met with a short burst of laughter. It had been a process for him, accepting the relationship between the two brothers he had idolized in his youth. ( Still idolized, though he’d scoff at the notion nowadays. ) The process wasn’t over, by a long shot, but he’d come to a median point that allowed him enough acceptance to crack the occasional dry joke.

It was a good thing.

They walk further inside, past the open kitchen and into the living room that took up the rest of the open area. There was a lit fireplace against the far wall, a door out to the back patio, a smattering of plush looking furniture and a Christmas tree big enough to brush the walkway above. It was barren, for now.

Judal had just dropped his coat over the back of one of the armchairs when Hakuryuu walked in through the side door, stamping his feet of snow.

“You forgot this in the car, Judal.” he held out his game device, quirking a brow when his fiancé grinned at him.

Judal jerked his head and Hakuryuu looked over his shoulder. He caught sight of the kitchen and stilled completely, still holding out the game. Kouen huffed and crossed his arms, leaning back against another chair and watching with some bemusement. Hakuren shifted his weight anxiously.

“…Oh.” Hakuryuu said quietly after a very long pause. “That’s why you said to bring… everything.”

“Yeah I didn’t, uh.” Hakuren rubs the back of his neck. “You know way more than me about cooking. I kinda figured with all that space it was better safe than sorry so you could… Do whatever you wanted I guess.”

Judal and Kouen exchange a look that is equal parts exasperated, amused, and maybe a little bit infatuated. The Ren brothers were some of the most brilliant, successful, beautiful men on the planet. They were also complete and utter emotional morons with the communication skills of an entire class of sixth graders.

“It was one of the selling points on the cabin.” the elder rambled on. “…You like it?”

Hakuryuu finally bothered to tear his eyes away from the expansive culinary playground he’d just been given free reign over. His eyes were shimmering with barely concealed excitement, and Judal resisted the urge to make a quip about it being a little early to be looking like a child on Christmas.

True to Judal’s word however, Hakuryuu planted a very firm kiss on his elder brother’s cheek in thanks.

The remaining three Ren’s arrived an hour later. Kouha came crashing through the door, yelling for Judal like they hadn’t just seen one another the week prior. They leapt at each other like a pair of overly excited puppies, collapsing on the carpet and tussling, filling the room with boyish laughter.

Koumei and Hakuyuu shouldered their ways into the cabin, toting several bags of groceries each and casting withering looks at the bagless Kouha.

“He saw your car and bolted.” Koumei grumbled, dumping bags onto the first available counter space he saw. “You’d think he hadn’t seen you two in years.”

The older redhead’s scathing remarks were interrupted by a speeding bundle of red and pink that came slamming into Hakuryuu’s back. He stumbled and caught himself on the counter, glowering halfheartedly over his shoulder at his cousin.

“You guys made it!” Kouha crowed excitedly. “What the hell took you?!”

“You saw us last Thursday!”

“Oh my god that was like a—ages ago!”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes, continuing to unpack plates, stacking them neatly in the open cupboard. He made no real effort to dislodge his cousin from hugging him around the waist though.

Two more trips and a lot of grumbling from Koumei later and the contents of the shopping trip was spilling over the counters and onto the hardwood floors. Hakuyuu set down the last bag and sighed, pulling his gloves off one finger at a time. He stuffed them into his coat pocket before unzipping it and shrugging it off, throwing it over a random chair and finally turned his attention to his youngest sibling.

He smiled, said nothing, and opened his arms. Hakuryuu didn’t even hesitate, just ducked into his older brother’s arms and squeezed him tightly around the middle.

“I’m glad you made it.” Hakuyuu murmured, pressing a kiss to the crown of Hakuryuu’s head. “You look well.”

“I feel well.”

“Good.”

He let his brother go, turning to look at Hakuren, who had come bouncing his way over to greet his lover and help put the groceries away. His cheery smile fell when he was fixed with a critical stare.

“If those are the same socks you went out in the snow in, I’m going to be very annoyed.” Hakuyuu informed.

Hakuren gaped a moment, clearly unsure how Hakuyuu could possibly know about that, then comprehension dawned in his eyes. He whipped his head around to look at Kouen.

“You told him?!” he accused incredulously.

Kouen didn’t even respond, just rolled his eyes and pointed at Judal. Hakuren rounded on him with a look of true horror.

“You traitor.” he whispered in a voice that suggested Judal had just told him he killed a puppy.

Judal grinned cheekily and crossed over to where Hakuyuu was, accepting an embrace from the eldest Ren along with a quiet greeting. Judal had to lift his heels slightly to get his arms around Hakuyuu’s neck, being that the eldest Ren was tall as their father had been, but he didn’t seem to mind.

He gave him an affectionate peck on the cheek when they parted, and Hakuyuu smiled.

“Hakuryuu has been treating you well?”

“Hakuyuu.” Hakuryuu groaned in something that sounded dangerously like a whine.

“Of course he has.” Judal laughed, ignoring his fiancé. “He’s perfect.”

Hakuyuu hummed his approval of this answer, sparing a hand to tussle first Judal’s, then his brother’s hair. The former smiled and the latter grimace, but not with any real displeasure.

“Alright.” the eldest Ren clapped his hands, drawing full attention. “Kouha, Koumei, finish unpacking the groceries for us. Kouen, I think we left the tree decorations in the dining room, can you move them in here? Hakuryuu, I’m going to give you and Judal a tour and Hakuren—Go take a hot shower and change your damn socks.”

With Hakuyuu taking charge of things, no one even thought to argue and instead set about their individual tasks, even if this included some grumbling and muttered threats about socks and traitors.

The assorted decorations for this year’s Christmas tree were a lot more eclectic than in year’s past. Decorating the tree as a family was a tradition in the Ren household, one of rare times where everyone seemed to work together, and this year was no different.

One of the benefits of the family’s money around Christmas included the massive yearly tree. It generally took up most of the living room and had an adequate number of decorations to match, collected throughout the last few decades and used every single year.

Not to be outdone, the tree in the cabin was just as impressive as the one likely back in the manor house, however the decades old collection of ornaments was clearly lacking. Somehow, Kouha had managed to nab three random boxes from the attic without anyone catching him, but that was hardly going to cover the entire tree.

The solution to this dilemma had been for there to be a run to just about every store that might carry ornaments in the area to obtain anything even remotely suitable for decoration. It wasn’t what they were used to by a long shot, but for their first Christmas on their own it would have to do.

Three boxes and ten different plastic bags full of cheap ornaments sat in front of the tree along with two step ladders of different sizes and a coffee table with seven mugs on it. These were filled with a combination of hot chocolate, four with marshmallows and three without, and peppermint schnapps. The hot chocolate during tree decorating was another family tradition, the schnapps came when Judal joined aforementioned family. It was a good addition.

The seven men stood around in an approximation of a semi-circle, looking up at the bare tree with varying shades of thoughtfulness.

“So.” Judal spoke up. “Where do we start?”

He was the only one sitting down, his legs crossed and mug of hot chocolate on his ankles, in the middle of the leather couch. He did this every year, no matter how much Hakuryuu and his family gently reassured him that married yet or not, he was part of the family. The first few Ren’s would start decorating, and only then would he join in.

“Well…” Hakuren muttered, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow at the tree.

Usually, the youngest would start, which for years had been Hakuryuu, until cousins started having children. Then they got to begin things.

“I don’t even remember what we bought.” Koumei confessed.

“Should we just dump everything out??” Kouha suggested.

“There’s breakables!”

“Okay dump everything out carefully?”

No one seemed to have a better idea than that, so that’s what they did.

The coffee table was moved back closer to the couch and then everyone began to pour the plastic bags out onto the ground. Hakuryuu, surprisingly, was the first one to go for one of the Ren family boxes and at that to the pile of ornaments.

Soon there was a large collection of mismatched colors and sparkling objects all over the hardwood. There was a heaping pile of tinsel and streamers to one side and, unnoticed, a white box nudged halfway behind an armchair. Kouen had pushed it a little further back with his foot and when Judal caught him, he gave him a look and the red eyed boy winked.

After that, tradition went firmly out the window.

Hakuren swooped down on a decorative reindeer he spotted and that was the first thing onto the tree. It was gaudy and cartoonish, but it was also adorable and that made it perfectly alright. Kouen suggested tinsel before anymore ornaments, and everyone agreed.

This mostly worked out. Between the step ladders and a ten minute stretch of Kouen with his youngest brother on his shoulders, the tree was wrapped in festive garlands. It wasn’t neat by any means, even with Hakuryuu spotting them. They’d underestimated the tree’s size and so the whole thing was draped in mismatched tinsel and strings that ended abruptly only to have another color pick up two branches above.

Judal got distracted and started putting more baubles on the tree, effectively getting in the way, but Hakuren joined him before Hakuyuu could protest.

There were several near spills and a handful of ornaments got broken, but by that point the air of Christmas had already set in and absolutely no one cared. Kouha decided he didn’t like a particular bauble and tossed it from his perch on Kouen’s shoulders to shatter on the floor next to the few that had broken on accident. Everyone laughed and another round of hot chocolate was poured.

Hakuryuu retrieved something from the room he was to share with Judal upstairs, which proved to be an ornament the both of them had bought months ago in fit of post-engagement sentimentality. It was a simple snowflake frame with a small plaque at its center that read First Christmas in pretty blue calligraphy.

“We’re not married yet.” Judal protested, but was aptly silenced by a swift kiss.

“Well you guys are getting married in less than a year.” Koumei piped up from where he’d sprawled himself in a loveseat, his second cup of hot chocolate half gone. “Seems kind of silly to wait.”

“I thought it would be appropriate for this year.” Hakuryuu agreed. “If this is to become the new tradition.”

And that was the plan. They finished the last touches on the tree and then stood back, letting Judal and Hakuryuu have their moment to hang the snowflake on the tree. Kouha snapped photos, including ones of Judal pressing a kiss to his fiancé’s scarred cheek before murmuring how much he loved him against his ear.

“Now we’re just missing the star.” Hakuyuu sighed, somewhat wistfully.

“About that…”

All eyes turned on Kouen, who had crouched behind the loveseat Koumei was on to retrieve the white box. He stood straight and opened it, reaching inside to retrieve the object inside and hold it up. Several jaws, including Hakuyuu’s dropped.

“Is that—“

“Yes.”

What Kouen held happened to be the Ren family star, perhaps the single most important ornament they owned. It was ancient, old enough that Hakuyuu could remember his father telling him about when he’d first seen it when he was a boy.

It was three dimensional, and made of shimmering glass, or perhaps even crystal. It shot off in pretty, sharp points in all directions so it less resembled the usual five pointed star, and more a burst of light. When light hit it, it reflected in glimmering shades of rainbow.

“How… on earth did you get that out of the house?” Hakuyuu asked, sounding truly awed.

Kouen shrugged.

“I asked Hakuei to find it so we wouldn’t spend half the night looking for it like last year.” he said, sounding entirely unrepentant. “And then I took it.”

Somehow, it was very comforting to think that even Kouen was hurt by Hakuei’s choice to side with Gyokuen.

“So who puts it on top?” Kouha asked curiously. “Youngest, right?”

“I think Judal should do it.”

Several sets of eyes blinked in surprise at Kouen.

“I’m older than Hakuryuu.” Judal reminded him.

“You’re the newest member of the family. That overrides literal age.”

Hakuren nodded his head sagely and Hakuyuu offered a smile.

“I think he’s right.”

“…Alright but one of you tall people is gonna have to lift me, I can’t reach that.”

It was Hakuyuu who took the task of hoisting Judal up onto his shoulders to reach the top of the tree. The oldest carrying the “youngest”, it seemed appropriate. Judal clambered onto his shoulders and Hakuyuu lifted him effortless, holding his calves to make sure he didn’t wobble and stepping further or closer to the tree per instruction.

Everyone was kind enough to pretend like they didn’t see Hakuren shiver at the show of physical strength from his lover. Kouha might have rolled his eyes.

Judal placed the star ever so carefully atop the tree, taking a moment to make absolutely sure it would not tilt or fall from its perch before nodding to himself and looking down at the others.

“Good?” he asked.

A chorus of affirmatives came and Hakuyuu backed away from the tree. He kept backing up though, and Hakuryuu had to hide his smile when he noted the brief mischievous look on his eldest brother’s face. He remembered this from when he was a child, and Judal had no idea it was coming.

Judal was just about to ask what Hakuyuu was doing when the eldest Ren promptly dropped to one knee. The sudden movement made Judal shriek, but before he could grip onto the Ren under him, he’d been gripped by the knees and shoved firmly backwards onto the couch. It was maybe a foot drop, but it still made him yelp.

By the time the shocked boy was recovered, everyone was already laughing, Hakuryuu personally doubled over at the look of scandalized surprise on his fiancé’s face. Judal promptly went after Hakuyuu with a pillow.

Another round of chocolate and schnapps went around, and then Hakuren announced he was starving.

Hakuren also announced that he wanted to put lights up outside.

Lights happened to be the only thing there seemed to be an excess of as they still had three rolls left over that didn’t make it on the tree. While Hakuryuu set about making dinner, he enlisted Kouha’s help to go outside and hang them around the roof.

Koumei voiced concern about it being dark out, but the two were already bundling up and meandering out into the snow.

Kouen and Hakuyuu joined the youngest of them in the kitchen, though they made no effort to do anything of their own volition. All things culinary were Hakuryuu’s domain, and had been since he hit twelve and could suddenly cook better than all of them combined. ( A proven fact, as they had all actually competed against him to make a single meal. He won. )

Thankfully, when it came to big meals outside his own home, Hakuryuu could delegate. He set his brother and cousin both to separate tasks, took up three more himself, and told Judal he could finish his hot chocolate over his shoulder.

Judal was seated on the couch with Koumei, both of them fiddling with their handheld games, though Hakuryuu’s mug already rested on his fiancé’s knee. He called out a brief “thanks!” anyway.

Soon enough the cabin was filling with the smells of whatever Hakuryuu had deemed worthy of their night before Christmas Even dinner. Whatever it was included some very aromatic spices that made everyone’s mouth water and soon enough games had been abandoned and the last two gravitated towards the kitchen.

It was large enough to accommodate five people without anyone running into one another, but the three cooking had everything handled and so Judal and Koumei ended up leaning on counters watching.

Despite nothing being even close to finished, Judal still managed to weasel a few morsels out of his fiancé. Each one was given with a small resigned sigh, but rewarded with a smile that made Hakuryuu’s expression visibly soften. Kouen shook his head after the fourth time, when his cousin returned to his side to continue chopping vegetables.

“He plays you like a harp.” he commented.

By now, Hakuryuu was fluent in his cousin’s manner of speech and didn’t take offense to his words, since none was meant.

“He does.” he agreed with a faint smile. “But he never takes advantage of it.”

Apparently sensing that attention was on him, Judal came up behind his fiancé and wrapped his arms around his waist, tucking himself against his back. He buried his face in his shoulder and made a happy humming sound that arched in volume hen Hakuryuu turned his head to kiss his temple.

There was a sudden, very sharp yell from outside, followed by a colossal thump.

Hakuyuu’s head jerked up and he abandoned the pot he had been stirring immediately, dashing to the front door and throwing it open. He looked around and his eyes widened in muted horror when he noted the person pushing themselves slowly up from the snow.

“Hakuren--!”

He darted out of the cabin, shoes, socks and coat be damned, leaving the front door open and going to his brother. Hakuren was shaking his head, swaying slightly where he stood but seemingly otherwise unharmed. There was a good sized dent in the snow where he had fallen, and a trail of Christmas lights hanging from the roof.

“Are you alright?!” Hakuyuu asked, sounding a little frantic. He reached his brother, letting him support himself and try to clear his head.

Hakuren swayed the wrong inch over and his heel caught ice. He squawked, Hakuyuu yelled, and then they were both going down.

For the second time in the past five minutes, Hakuren found himself sprawled out on his back in the snow and a little bit dizzy. This time however, his view of the starry sky and treacherous roof was obscured by his lover, who had managed to catch himself on his hands just before he came crashing down on top of him.

Blinking the haze from his eyes, Hakuren focused on his brother. With the light spilling out from the opened door, he was framed in a soft golden glow. It made his hair shimmer, and even though he wasn’t facing the sky, Hakuren swore he could see stars in his eyes.

“…Hey.” he hummed with a lazy smile.

“…Hey.” Hakuyuu breathed back, unable to tear their eyes apart.

This was oddly reminiscent of the first time they’d realized they were attracted to one another. A similar spill, though on a wet floor rather than snow covered ground, had landed them in almost the same position. They’d stayed there, staring numbly at one another, both aware but afraid to acknowledge the pulse of heat that passed between them.

There was no such fear now. The electric shocks were a familiar thrum in their veins, the closeness an overwhelming comfort. Damn the cold, there was very little in their scope of thought besides each other.

Almost in unison they leaned in, but before their lips could touch an irate voice said;

“Look not that you two aren’t gross and romantic as shit but could someone please fucking help me?!”

Looking up, they found one very put out Kouha Ren standing on a ladder, holding up a string of lights on his own. He had a nail gun in one hand with the lights, but the other was gripping the roof to keep the ladder steady. He wasn’t in any real danger, but it was still precarious.

Immediately, Hakuyuu got up, grabbing his lover by the hand and pulling him onto his feet. He was about to apologize to Kouha and offer to steady the ladder when Hakuren finally noticed his state of dress.

“Yuu!!” he half-shouted accusingly. “You’re hardly dressed! Get inside!!”

“What? I’m fi—“

“Oh my god you don’t even have shoes on!” Kouha noted from the ladder.

“YUU!!”

“I thought you were hurt!”

“Oh my god go inside you stupid—“

“No, you fell you need to go ice your head and someone needs to help K—“

“Both of you shut up and go inside.” Kouen ordered from the doorway. He, unlike his cousin, had had the forethought to grab his coat and boots. “Take a bath and change, Hakuyuu. I’ll help Kouha finish.”

They didn’t bother to argue, trekking back inside one after the other. Judal and Koumei had taken over the abandoned positions in the kitchen and seemed almost done with the prep work for their meal. Hakuryuu had thrown the wood oven open wide, turning something cooking inside, allowing those entering to be hit with an immediate wave of heat.

Hakuyuu shuddered, suddenly aware of just how cold and wet he was, wrapping his arms around himself as his body began to react in the drastic change in temperature. He shuffled off towards the master bath upstairs, apparently now very much in favor of the idea of a bath. Hakuren made to follow him and Koumei poked his head out from around the freezer door.

“Oi, where are you going?” he accused, hefting an ice pack probably meant for Hakuren’s head.

The older Ren blinked innocently.

“Bath.”

“But your head—“

“I fell in the snow. Gotta warm up.”

Koumei opened his mouth to protest but Hakuryuu interjected with;

“Dinner will be on the table in forty five minutes. We’re starting without you if you’re late.” he looked over his shoulder, expression softening. “And let Yuu look at your head, brother. Last thing we want is you with a concussion.”

Hakuren gave his usual lopsided grin, kissing his brother’s cheek before darting off upstairs.

There was a dining room off the left side of the main room, with a big oak table and plenty of chairs for the entire Ren family to fit and then some. The food never actually made it to the table, bellies growling too loudly to bother with ceremony. Hakuryuu protested for all of a moment before relenting.

They laid out dinner on the big coffee table in front of the tree, settling themselves into plush furniture to enjoy the meal. Hakuyuu brought out two bottles of wine, one red and one white, and uncorked both. Everyone got a choice of what they wanted besides Judal, who he simply handed a glass of the white.

Judal looked like he might kiss him when he proclaimed it tasted like fruit; strongly among them peaches. Hakuryuu made an idle comment about his brother stealing his fiancé.

They ate and drank with the fire still going and the tree glittering not three feet away. Some gifts had already been unloaded and placed around the lowest branches, colorful wrapping paper matching the haphazard decorations. The pile wasn’t nearly as big as it would have been if they were at home, but that was alright.

By the time Hakuryuu had retrieved dessert from the oven the red wine was gone and the last of the white was being rationed out among those of them who wanted to keep drinking. Between the wine and the earlier schnapps, everyone was pleasantly buzzed and craving something sweet.

Over wood oven baked apple pie and wine, Kouha insisted on background music. They put on Christmas carols and before long Hakuren had begun to sing along. His voice wavered tipsily, but there was a smile on his face and before they all knew it they’d all joined in.

They collectively stumbled through the carols, messing up lyrics or improvising them entirely where they didn’t know them. Judal managed to carry the highest notes almost entirely on his own and with some nudging from his brothers, Hakuryu sang and entire solo on his own.

More well-known songs were sung almost perfectly at first, but by the time they reached Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer it had become a competition of who could sing along in the strangest voice. The playlist skipped over to the first song again and they started all over until the wine was gone and they were all laughing like children.

It had to have been almost ten at night when Koumei somehow wrangled them all in their coats and boots, insisting on leading them outside. The buzz of alcohol was still strong in their systems, pleasantly warm as they tramped out into the snow after the redheaded Ren.

He led them into the woods out back, following a path he insisted he knew. Hakuren and Kouha taunted him and made jokes about being lost in the woods on Christmas, but it was all lightheaded. A good natured snowball fight briefly ensued, but it was mostly loose handfuls of snow being tossed at people’s faces and missing terribly.

Everyone was smiling and the two present couples were holding hands by the time they stopped.

“C’mere you idiots, c’mon, c’mon.” Koumei gestured them all further out into the clearing and with a few amused chortles, they complied.

The clearing proved to not be a clearing at all, but a cliff. It was no secret they were up the side of a mountain, but the sudden sloping drop made Hakuren whistle in surprise.

“Whoa…” Judal breathed, looking where Koumei was pointing them. Everyone else looked too.

Far below, spread out in a picturesque labyrinth of cobblestone streets and snow covered rooves was the nearest town. Streetlamps winked in the darkness, illuminating the sleepy village like something out of a Christmas story. There were decorations visible, even from this distance, winding around poles and houses, glittering charmingly.

Smoke wafted from chimneys and danced away into the inky sky where it could no longer be seen. And as they all looked up, they were greeted by the wide stretch of the night sky, free of city light pollution and gleaming back at them in all its unfiltered glory.

Stars shone above them as if to reflect the festive lights far above, lighting up the darkness with their pure white glow. Hakuryuu could pick out constellations he’d memorized from Judal’s passionate explanations, naming them off in his head.

“It’s gorgeous out here.” Hakuyuu murmured. “How on earth did you find it, Mei?”

“I wandered around when we first got here.” he said, shrugging and staring up at the sky. “Wanted to see if I could snag some photos of local wildlife. Found this place instead.”

“Good call on showing us at night.” Kouha commented.

“Thanks.”

The assembled bunch of mismatched family members stood in silence, alternating between counting the stars and looking down at the quiet little town far below.

Hakuyuu wrapped his arm around his lover’s waist, pulling Hakuren against himself and smiling when arms wound around him in response. The chill was beginning to bite through their coats but no one seemed terribly intent on moving.

After the year they had had, the serenity of the moment was too perfect to break.

Kouha did though.

“Don’t look now, you two,” he said, having turned his head and caught sight of something hanging above Judal and Hakuryuu’s heads. “But I might look up.”

They were already looking up, but they turned slightly to squint up at the tree branch above them. It took them a moment, then Hakuren barked a laugh.

“Oh my god, is that actual mistletoe?”

“You two are a living fairytale.” Koumei commented dryly, shaking his head. “This kind of thing just happens to you.”

The mistletoe swung lightly in the breeze, clinging to its tree host and positioned temptingly above the engaged couple. Judal laughed loud enough to fill the air with the sound of his mirth and Hakuryuu smiled wide.

“Get on with it!” Hakuyuu insisted with a laugh. “It’s tradition!”

Hakuryuu wrapped a hand into Judal’s scarf and pulled, tugging his fiancé against himself. Judal came willingly, laughter quieting to a gentle smile as he stared into blue eyes. There was a half second of pause where they just looked at one another before they leaned in, heads tilting to accommodate the press of their mouths.

Kouha and Hakuren hooted and clapped and Koumei was inebriated enough to join them. The kissing pair weren’t paying a lick of attention, arms winding around each other thoughtlessly as the affectionate gesture drew on.

Eventually, they parted and everyone began their trek back to the cabin. They talked idly of what they’d do the following morning, though plans were sure to change at anyone’s whim, still smiling and laughing amongst themselves.

It felt like Christmas for the first time in years, and that was all that mattered.

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