Part Twenty

Nathan and Joseph arrived at a gift shop located in a shopping center.

"Hey..." Joseph muttered as they were walking down an isle.

"Hmm?" Nathan looked at Joseph.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Joseph asked timidly.

"Your existence is actually the best Christmas present for me." Nathan whispered into Joseph's ears and it made Joseph blush like a rose.

"What about you? What do you want for Christmas, love?"

"Having you with me is already more than enough. You don't have to spend big money on me." Joseph smiled.

"Okay." Nathan replied.

"Ah! Let's take a look at the scarfs over there. We can buy each other a scarf for Christmas!" Joseph said before they went straight to the isle full of colorful scarfs.

"Let's get a pair of matching scarfs." Joseph said as he grabbed a blue woolen scarf.

"It suits you. It looks good on you babe!" Joseph said as he wound the scarf around Nathan's neck.

"Really? Then which scarf do you want to match with mine?" Nathan

"I don't know. What do you think?" Joseph pondered, with a finger and a thumb on his chin.

"How about this green one that matches your beautiful eyes?" Nathan took a green woolen scarf and wound it around Joseph's neck gently.

"Yours matches your eyes too!" Joseph exclaimed.

"Oh yeah! Let's buy these two scarfs as our Christmas presents for each other then!" Nathan suggested.

"Okay!" Joseph was beaming with joy.

Afterwards, the two boys went to the cashier and paid for their pair of scarfs.

"It's almost half past eleven now. Do you want to have lunch together or something?" Nathan asked.

"Sure!" Joseph grinned.

"Let's go to that restaurant I told you about before." Nathan said.

"Okay!" Joseph answered before they both left the shopping center to get to the restaurant.

"By the way, how exactly did you tell your mom about your relationship?" Nathan asked when they were on their way to the restaurant.

"I just told her that I had something important to tell her and talked with her alone." Joseph continued, "Also, I just told her about my relationship straight away and she approved it."

"Your mom is really open minded. I hope my mom is the same." Nathan sighed, looking very worried.

Without saying anything, Joseph put his hand on Nathan's shoulder to calm him down. He knew coming out to others, especially parents, was very difficult and a lot of courage was needed.

"Thank you." Nathan mumbled and looked at Joseph with a timid smile. He knew Joseph was trying to calm him down, so he tried to appear calm even though he still felt very worried deep inside. He would not want his baby to get sad.

"Look! The restaurant is right there. Let's see what's on the menu!" Nathan exclaimed, trying to draw attention to the restaurant.

"Oh yeah! Let's see what we can eat!" Joseph responded.

They walked in the restaurant after scanning the menu outside. They sat in a booth next to a window and ordered their food afterwards.

The whole time in the restaurant, they talked about their lives, before getting together. It was Joseph's first time not visiting his Grandparents with his family at Christmas while Nathan did not celebrate Christmas much as his mom was always busy with her work. Nevertheless, Nathan knew that his mom cared about him very much because he was her only son.

Not long after, they both finished their meal and went back to Joseph's home. There was still some time before Nathan needed to keep his promise to come out to his mother. To kill time, they played Scrabble together.

"No names are allowed! You can't put my name down!" Joseph blushed while pretending to be angry that Nathan broke the rule.

"Fine." Nathan said as he reached out his hand to take back his square tiles.

"I can let you break the rule once." Joseph purred.

"It's fine. I'm going to win if you let me put down your name. Remember, the loser needs to get tickled by the other." Nathan smirked.

"I take it back then! I won't let you tickle me! Take away my name and it's my turn!" Joseph said and placed a few square tiles on the board.

"Booyah! I only have two tiles left!" Joseph exclaimed.

"Arghhh!!!" Nathan could not put down any words on the board. "I give up! You win..."

"Yay! I win!" Joseph cheered happily, with his fist pumped in the air.

Seeing Joseph happy, Nathan's heart melted. His beautiful eyes, his cute smile, to be honest, everything about Joseph made Nathan weak at his knees. Every time he saw Joseph being cute and happy, all he wanted to do was to protect his precious baby from getting hurt.

"Looks like someone is going to get tickled by me..." Joseph smirked at Nathan.

"Really? Who's that?" Nathan pretended to look around.

"It's you!!!" Joseph tickled Nathan in his stomach and Nathan laughed while moving around.

"Haha! That's what you get for losing!" Joseph snickered after he stopped tickling Nathan.

"Okay! Let's play one more round! I will win this time!" Nathan exclaimed.

"Okay! Let's see." Joseph said as he grabbed all the tiles from the board to restart the game. They both looked very serious this time as none of them wanted to get tickled.

But this time, Nathan won the game by one point ahead of Joseph.

"One point! I almost win! If I have my turn first, I'll be winning!" Joseph said.

"I told you I will win this time!" Nathan raised his chin up, "Are you ready to get tickled?"

"No- HA HA HA!" Nathan moved his fingers in Joseph's stomach without waiting for him to answer.

"Oh gosh, I will not let you win next time. It's not fair that I'm way more ticklish than you." Joseph said after he got tickled by Nathan.

"That's the whole point of the game." Nathan smirked. Then, he took a look at his phone and he noticed that it was already five o'clock. It was time to meet his mom.

"Time flies. It's five o'clock now. I should probably go now." Nathan said to Joseph.

"Okay. Wish you good luck. I'll be here waiting for your good news." Joseph smiled.

"But before I go, can I ask you something?" Nathan put both of his hands on Joseph's shoulders, looking sincere.

"What?" Joseph asked.

"If I have bad news instead of good news, could you please stay with me?" Nathan looked Joseph in his eyes.

"I will never leave you, no matter what others say." Joseph answered.

"Thank you!" Nathan and Joseph shared a hug which filled Nathan with the courage that he needed.

"Got to go now. See you." Nathan waved at Joseph before walking out of the door.

"Bye. Good luck." Joseph said as Nathan closed the door behind him.