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Two days. Christmas was in two days and Scaramouche was dreading it. He really hated anything where he would have to socialize and yet he agreed to go to a big Christmas party with Nahida because though he hates people, he supposes that he could do her this one favor and go with her since it’s Christmas. Then there’s also the fact that every other time she asks him to come out, he says no without a second thought.
Scaramouche laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about how to get out of going to this party. Maybe he could pretend to be sick or something so he wouldn’t have to go, but then maybe if he goes to this Christmas party Nahida won’t ask him to go to a New Years party, right? He groaned and sat up in bed. This was stressing him out.
Just then, someone knocked on his dorm door. “Mouche!” Came Nahida’s voice from the other side. “Open up.” He sighed and got up to open the door for Nahida. The short, white haired girl beamed when she saw Scaramouche and he couldn’t help but give her a small smile. She had always been pretty with her unique peridot eyes and soft looks. She had a heart of gold to match which made Scaramouche wonder how someone like her befriended someone like him.
“Here,” Nahida said, pulling something out of her bag and handing it to Scaramouche. “I know it’s kind of a late notice, but a small group of us decided to do secret santa.”
“Kind of a late notice,” Scaramouche deadpanned. He stared blankly at the folded piece of paper. “Nahida, you know Christmas is in two days, right?”
Nahida rolled her eyes playfully and pushed past Scaramouche, welcoming herself into his dorm. “I know, but it’s just a small group of us and we’re gonna grab dinner together before the party too." She made herself comfortable at his desk and continued, “Me, you, Kazuha, Aether, Lumine-”
“Wait, why are those kids involved?” Scaramouche asked. “I thought we left them behind after we graduated.”
Nahida gave him a disapproving look. “Really, Mouche? They’re a year younger than us and we grew up with them too. Anyway, just take the paper, okay? That’s your secret santa and we can go shopping together tomorrow.”
Scaramouche grumbled, “Okay…” He knew Nahida was telling and not suggesting.
“Then I’ll be back here tomorrow morning around ten.” Nahida smiled. She stood up, ready to leave, and snatched the paper from him, setting it on Scaramouche’s desk. “We can grab lunch too then, my treat.”
“Fine,” he agreed. “The only reason I’m not upset is because you’re buying me lunch.”
“See you tomorrow.” Nahida pinched Scaramouche’s cheek softly and took her leave.
It’s later when Scaramouche is all showered up and ready for bed that he remembers the paper on his desk. He was never really a gift giver. In fact, when he thinks about it, he’s probably never given anyone a gift before. Scaramouche grabbed the paper, unfolding it and his whole mood dropped in an instant.
Childe.
°˖✧✿✧˖°
“You wanna trade secret santas?” Scaramouche casually asked Nahida as he followed her through the store.
She laughed, “No way. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.”
“Don’t give me that elementary ass saying, Nahida. I’m being serious.”
Nahida looked at Scaramouche and gave in. “What’s wrong with your secret santa?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “I just…” Scaramouche trailed off. “I don’t know. He’s annoying.”
“Way to go, Captain Obvious,” Nahida giggled behind her hand. “You got Childe?”
Scaramouche responded in silence, making Nahida laugh again.
“Just go find him a gift, okay? It’s just a present, nobody’s forcing you to be friends with him.”
Scaramouche reluctantly left Nahida’s side to find a gift for Childe, doing more thinking than shopping. A whole lot of people he went to high school with were people who he essentially grew up with. People he had known his whole life and well, this one particular annoying redheaded guy did a lot more than annoy Scaramouche.
They were neighbors meaning that Scaramouche saw a lot more of Childe than he ever wanted. He remembered when he first got with his family when he was adopted. He remembered the way seeing Childe with his younger siblings and parents and uncles and aunts and just his whole huge ass family made him feel so… small. It wasn't jealousy, but he yearned for it still. It must have been nice.
Scaramouche snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed a small shop. It was a stupid bright looking store with trinkets of all sorts. Probably a store that an idiot like Childe would like and there, on a display shelf, was what Scaramouche decided to buy for Childe.
°˖✧✿✧˖°
"A fake mandarin tree?" Childe stared at his gift.
They had done the secret santa exchange inside the restaurant but Scaramouche forgot Childe's gift back at his dorm. Nahida suggested the two go back to his dorm to get it and meet the rest of them at the Christmas party. So there they were, outside of Scaramouche's dorm with Childe holding his fake miniature mandarin tree.
"Yeah," Scaramouche replied simply.
"You really put a lot of thought into this," Childe joked. "Thanks. I'll put it on my desk so I can always see it when I study."
Scaramouche almost laughed. "Don't lie. You don't study, Childe."
The taller boy just grinned at him. "I got you something too."
"But you didn't get me as your-"
"So?" Childe cut him off and reached into his coat pocket. "Close your eyes and put your hand out."
"No way." Scaramouche took a step back. "It's probably-"
"Just do it."
With a huff, Scaramouche did as told and closed his eyes. As soon as he put his hand out, something was placed in his palm.
"Open."
Scaramouche opened his eyes to see a small fox keychain in his palm.
"And I have one too." Childe showed Scaramouche a small black cat keychain. "It's you."
He eyed the fox keychain. "And this is you?" Scaramouche asked. "It's… us?"
"Don't play dumb with me. You know how I feel about you. I don't try hard to hide it."
Scaramouche blinked. What a blatant confession coming from someone as flashy as Childe. Scaramouche had known this of course, everyone did. Childe had clung to Scaramouche since they were young and started to get more bold as they got older. He always thought it was some dumb little crush and that Childe would eventually give up and yet, even after Scaramouche moved into a dorm for college, Childe thought about him.
"You act like we're friends or something," Scaramouche eventually said and stuffed the fox keychain into his pocket. "We're just old neighbors who happened to grow up together."
"Then why'd you get me this?"
"Because I got you for secret santa."
Childe smiled, his eyes sparkling with a knowing glint. "Well we should go to the party now. I'm sure they're all waiting on us."
°˖✧✿✧˖°
"Hey!" Scaramouche grumbled as a snowball hit the back of his head. He turned to see Childe standing on his front porch, waving at him.
"When you finish shoveling, my mom said to come over for hot chocolate!" He yelled. "We made cookies too!"
Scaramouche would have said no, but a nice hot cup of hot chocolate sounded amazing. Plus, he actually liked Childe's family. He finished helping his parents shovel and ran over to Childe's.
"Scaramouche!" Childe beamed when he opened the front door. "You came."
"Move it, kid. It's cold out here." Scaramouche shoved past Childe and into the house.
"Come on." Childe grabbed the other boy's arm and pulled him into the living room. "My mom and the kids are in the kitchen but I got us fresh hot chocolate over here."
Scaramouche joined Childe on the floor next to the coffee table. "Thanks, I guess," he muttered, taking his hat and gloves off. There was a bowl of mandarins on the coffee table next to the two mugs of hot chocolate. Grabbing a mug, Scaramouche asked, "Can I have one?"
"Oh go ahead," Childe replied. "Mandarins are my favorite fruit so we always get them at the store. Why don't you take some home with you?"
"No, it's fine. I just want one for later."
They sat there for a while, enjoying their hot chocolate and watching tv. Scaramouche was quick to finish his hot chocolate and got up to leave.
"Tell your mom I said hi and thanks," he said and grabbed a mandarin to take home.
"Hold on." Childe got up quickly. "Let me walk you home."
"I live right next door. I don't think that's necessary but okay." Scaramouche watched Childe scramble to put his coat and boots on, almost tripping as he did so. "You're an idiot sometimes."
"And you still hangout with me."
"Not by choice," Scaramouche retorted. He headed out the door with Childe following him closely. "Well, we're literally here already so go home." He was about to open the front door when Childe stopped him.
"Take these. From me to you," he said and put two more mandarins in Scaramouche's hand. "I know you said you only wanted one but they're really good so…" Childe trailed off.
Scaramouche looked up at Childe. He was about an inch shorter since they got to middle school and Childe was hitting a growth spurt while Scaramouche seemed to be slowing down.
"Thanks." He looked down at the mandarins, hiding his face in his coat.
"I'm glad you came over."
"Shut up." Scaramouche opened his front door and slammed it in Childe's face. "Stupid Childe," he mumbled. He could feel his face growing warm. "Stupid mandarins."
°˖✧✿✧˖°
"A new year's party?" Scaramouche groaned. "Come on, Nahida. I already went to the Christmas party for you!"
"Just come!" Nahida put her hands together and pouted. "Please! It's a new years party, Mouche. If you come to this then I won't bug you about another party for three months."
"Deal." Scaramouche didn't bother to hesitate. He would take what he could get.
Nahida squealed, "You're the best, Mouche! I'll swing by later to pick you up."
"I'm driving us though."
"Why?"
Scaramouche raised an eyebrow at her. "Because you're a bad driver, Nahida."
"I- well, okay," She gave up on trying to defend herself. "You have a point."
°˖✧✿✧˖°
Scaramouche may have had a couple of drinks but maybe if Kaeya and Venti stopped making everything a competition then he wouldn't be feeling the way he did. He stumbled outside, in need of fresh air and checked the time on his phone. It was almost midnight.
"Just a few more minutes and I'm home bound," Scaramouche said to himself. There was a fuzzy, tingling feeling in his stomach. "Fucking Kaeya and Venti…" He sighed and turned around to go back inside but ran head first into someone's chest. "Ow, watch where-"
"You look like shit," someone told him.
Childe. No surprise there.
"Obviously someone can't handle their drinks," The redhead continued.
"I can!" Scaramouche replied, a bit loud because he was, in fact, a lightweight.
Childe just shrugged and casually walked in front of Scaramouche to reach out and touch the falling snow.
At that moment, Scaramouche felt words stirring inside of him and with a sudden burst of confidence, he blurted out, "You were right about your gift. The mandarin tree."
"I know."
"And I think you're stupid, and bad looking, and you're a ginger, and-"
"I know," Childe chuckled.
Scaramouche bit the inside of his cheek. "Stop knowing things! I'm trying to tell you that I might-"
SMACK
"THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?" he watched as Childe laughed uncontrollably after throwing a snowball at Scaramouche's head.
Childe grabbed another handful of snow. "Come on."
"This is so childish," Scaramouche told him. Still, he grabbed some snow and started chasing Childe. They ran back and forth down the street and in circles throwing snowballs at each other and just as Scaramouche was about to throw another one, he slipped on ice.
"Oh shit!" Childe quickly ran over only to see Scaramouche silently laughing so hard that he was holding his stomach.
"Oh my gosh," Scaramouche said with a gasp as he finished laughing.
"Are you okay? Does it hurt? Do you-"
"Childe," Scaramouche said softly. "I haven't had that much fun since we were kids."
Childe smiled at him and helped Scaramouche sit up. "So when will you admit it?" He asked, sitting on the ground across from Scaramouche.
"Admit what?"
"Admit that we're friends or something."
"Or something," Scaramouche repeated and that knowing glint was back in Childe's eyes.
From inside the house, they could hear people begin shouting the new years countdown.
"TEN!"
Scaramouche looked over at Childe.
"NINE!"
Childe grinned his usual shit eating grin.
"EIGHT!"
Childe moved closer to Scaramouche.
"SEVEN!"
Scaramouche licked his lips.
"SIX!"
He felt nervous and excited all at once.
"FIVE!"
He watched Childe move closer.
"FOUR!"
And closer.
"THREE!"
Scaramouche closed his eyes.
"TWO!"
And he waited.
"ONE!"
And waited.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
And then Childe kissed him.
It was quick and soft, but magical nonetheless.
"I like you," Scaramouche said when Childe backed away. "And I think you knew that already and I didn't know that I liked you."
"I always know stuff."
"Shut up." Scaramouche smiled. "What do you say we ditch this party right now and go sledding?"
"You know I'd do anything with you."