A soft christmas morning in the Akabane-Asano household

Christmas mornings were soft in Gakushuu and Karma's house. It being Karma's birthday had more to do with it than it being Christmas though, since Gakushuu didn't actually celebrate Christmas and Karma tended to celebrate it with his 3-E classmates instead.

Gakushuu woke up in the mornings and made his own coffee, the warm steam relaxing him almost as much as Karma's hugs.

His cat curled around his foot and he made his way to their living room and found Karma sitting on the couch, looking at old pictures they had sneaked of each other. Some were hilarious, some were just plain adorable.

Gakushuu took a look at Karma's current interest and snickered.

"I can't believe you're still stuck on this one," he said, putting his elbows on the back of their couch and looking at the pictures with Karma.

The picture Karma was looking at was a grumpy picture of a 12 year old Karma biting through the straw of his strawberry milk. It was taken unaware, like most of their pictures of each other.

"I was literally 12 years old. You were 12 years old," Karma protested meaninglessly. Like age had ever really mattered.

"Age is just a number," he quoted an ex-classmate, and Karma raised a brow at him.

"And when I say that on my interview, you go on a rant about they're talking about-"

"-job experience, which you have plenty of, but you don't like to talk about it because you want them to look at your current ability. Yes, everyone knows. The whole world will probably know the next time our argument goes viral on YouTube." Gakushuu agreeably finished Karma's sentence.

Karma pouted, then grinned. He pulled Gakushuu down closer and pulled him into a deep kiss.

"If you don't let go soon, my coffee will fall all over the pictures in your lap, " Gakushuu warned dizzily. Karma grinned, pressing one more kiss on Gakushuu's lips before pulling away.

"You're such a teenager," he complained, hiding his smile into the cup of coffee. Karma ignored him to look at more pictures.

Then very casually he said, "you know, you used to take a lot of pictures of me when we were young…"

Then, Karma looked at the startled Gakushuu and grinned.

"Say, did you like me back then?"

It would be a normal question for Gakushuu to answer. But the thing was…

Gakushuu shut his mouth, and pretended to walk away.

"Oh, come on!" Karma insisted, his grin childlike in his excitement. He followed Gakushuu to the kitchen, nagged him while he refilled his half-filled cup of coffee with even more hot coffee and followed him back to the couch.

Karma slumped over and stared silently at Gakushuu. He tilted his head and came to an uncanny conclusion.

"Did you look at the 12 year old red headed delinquent and decide he was going to be your future husband?" Karma laughed at the absurd thought.

Then he looked at Gakushuu sipping hot coffee with a smile and a light blush.

And. He. Realized.

"You called me Akabane," Karma choked out, eyes widening. Gakushuu's blush deepened even as he stared Karma in the face.

"Well, one of us needs to be comfortable using their last name and it's certainly not going to be me. " Gakushuu protested into his coffee.

"But- that was literally-" Karma stuttered, his tongue tangled up as he stared incredulously at his boyfriend.

Then Gakushuu grinned, a soft sweet thing that when paired with the blush and the shy look in his eyes, really shouldn't be making Karma's heart beat so fast.

He could be getting a heart attack instead.

Maybe. Possibly.

It could wait a while though.

Karma kissed the pretty smile off that pretty face.

"I can't believe you planned out our future as kids," Karma murmured, exasperated and delighted at this new piece of information.

"Well, you were so sweet, holding my hand and buying me food on Christmas." Gakushuu said, sitting on Karma's lap and letting him interrupt his words with soft kisses.

"I couldn't possibly resist," Gakushuu teased, then turned his head to press a kiss on Karma's cheek.

Then he bit said cheek.

"Ow," Karma laughed. He started tickling Gakushuu in retaliation.

Gakushuu blew a raspberry and they started giggling, before Gakushuu yelped and started laughing louder, helplessly batting at Karma's roaming hands.

"You asshole," Gakushuu tried to arm lock Karma while trying to avoid falling into a more disadvantageous position and Karma held him still while tickling him.

Gakushuu's worst discovery till date was finding out Karma didn't get ticklish and Gakushuu did.

It was too big an advantage for Karma, who used every means possible to win in his fights against Gakushuu.

The only compensation was that after, when Gakushuu was tearing up, Karma would hold him gently and kiss him until he stopped crying (he wasn't but Karma was a bitch so he didn't listen to Gakushuu).

Christmas morning with Karma was always the best. Warmth and cuddles that neither had experienced for a long time, along with the sweetness of their laughter and the spice of challenge that was the topping of all their interactions.

With the added delight of new findings and old classmates, it made for a wonderful married life.