(A BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS)
(i apologize for my laziness and lack of motivation buT IT'S HERE NOW AND IT'S NOT PROOFREAD SO BE PREPARED FOR M I S T A K E S)
(it's like 3:00am what am i doinggg)
(anyway HERE)

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“Oh, Armin!” Eren called to his pet as he ran out of the bedroom, who was currently sitting on the couch, playing with one of the stupid cat toys Eren had gotten him at one point. Strangely, he found it entertaining, which he hated.

He looked up from his toy, “Hm?”

“Guess what tomorrow is???”

“Uuuh…” Armin tried to think of anything special that could've been related to that day. Perhaps a birthday he was missing? A certain celebration Eren specifically began on that particular day for whatever reason? He didn't know.

“It’s Christmas!” Eren yelled, giving him a wide smile.

Armin looked thoroughly confused. “What’s a ‘Christmas’...?”

Eren gasped, “WHAT? You don't know what Christmas is?”

The blonde shook his head no, “Uh, no… I never celebrated it with my previous owners… Is it important?”

His owner nodded vigorously, “Yes! It’s a day to spend time with your family and friends, and give gifts to those special to you.”

Armin looked down at the cat toy he still had sitting beneath his hand. He held it up, “Gifts like this?”

“Yeah, sort of!”

Armin frowned and dropped the toy back onto the couch. “So that’s what the tree with colorful lights and decorations was all about, I was confused. Why is it so important? Don't we spend time with our family and friends all the time?”

“Well, some people, yeah,” Eren sat on the couch beside him, “But for other people, like you and me, we don't exactly have a family to spend time with. In our case, we're the closest thing to each other we can consider family, you know?”

Armin sadly nodded. “I see what you mean…”

Eren quickly gained his smile again, “But, there’s no time to be sad right now! I need to get you a gift. Or two! So just you wait.”

“Wait, shouldn’t I get you a gift, too? It seems unfair for you to get something for me when i don’t get anything for you…”

“N-No, you don’t have to, Armin! It’s fine, I know you don’t really have the money.” He said with a half smile, avoiding eye contact.

“Whatever you say, Eren…” Armin knew that look. He totally wanted the neko to get a gift for him.

His boyfriend got up from the couch and quickly kissed him before heading to the door. “I’ll be back soon!” He waved goodbye and disappeared into the outside world.

Armin sighed. He unconsciously began to play with the cat toy once more, trying to think of what he could get for Eren that would be special to him. He knew Eren liked food. He liked reading. He liked travelling. He liked… art.

This sparked an idea. Armin considered himself an ok artist. Eren always expressed how much he loved the little drawings Armin whipped up occasionally. He could do simple things with a pencil and paper. Painting, though, was a different story.

Armin loved painting. When it came to painting, he considered himself much better at it than drawing on paper. He felt like he could express himself on canvas, more than he ever could on paper. Whenever Eren wasn't home, pretty much all he would do is sleep, eat, and paint. He never showed him the paintings, though. He was mostly either disappointed about a painting or embarrassed about it. But maybe this was his opportunity to change that for once.

And, it just so happened that there was a certain project he'd been working on just for fun… Armin threw the cat toy across the living room, jumped off the couch, and rushed to work.

~~~~~~squiggly lines of timeskip~~~~~~

It was Christmas morning.

Eren was up out of bed and quick to the living room almost as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. He found Armin, sleeping restlessly on the couch.

“Armin! Wake up!” He shook the neko’s shoulder to wake him. The blonde momentarily opened his eyes, looking up at his owner with tired eyes.

Eren smiled gently at him, “Aren’t you going to get up? It’s Christmas!”

Armin nodded, sitting up. Eren grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the tree, where a few boxes wrapped in colorful paper were laying under it. “I bought you gifts!” He said happily, spreading his arms out as if to reveal them to him.

Armin smiled, his tail wagging lightly. “Thank you, Eren. I got you something, too!”

Eren’s eyes lit up, “Really?! Sweet!” He pulled Armin into a side-hug, “But you should open yours, first!”

Armin nodded an “ok” and sat on the ground next to the gifts. He picked up the nearest one to him, which was a very small box wrapped in red. Eren snickered.

The blonde looked at him skeptically as he tore the wrapping paper off. It was a tiny box. Eren’s laughing slowly began to get louder as he opened the box.

Inside, was a…

Armin angrily threw the gift at Eren’s face as he burst out laughing; he only narrowly dodged it. “A LASER POINTER?! EREN!”

“I’m sorry, I had to! Don’t kill me!” Eren said through laughs.

“I thought we agreed never to touch one of those ever again!” Armin fumed.

Eren picked up the laser pointer and turned it on, watching Armin’s eyes dart to it as he moved it. “I know… But it’s just so fun!”

Armin growled, and he turned it off, throwing it behind him. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry! That wasn't the real gift. There's still two more under the tree, y’know.”

The neko pouted, then sighed as he reached for the next gift. It was slightly larger box, this time wrapped in green. He tore the wrapping paper apart, in which, again, was box. He opened the box and looked inside with a gasp followed by a bright smile that made Eren laugh. “Wow! Eren, thank you!”

The gift was the entirety of the Death Note series, which Eren knew was one of his favorites. “I know how much you love the series, so I got you all the books!”

Armin hugged him briefly, “Again, thank you!”

“Ah, it’s nothing! Now, go ahead and open the last one!”

The blonde set the books aside (for now), and grabbed the last box under the tree. It was only slightly larger than the previous box, in length, and it was a bit thinner. This one was wrapped in rainbow colored paper, which Armin thought was strange, considering it seemed like it was specifically chosen to stick out among the rest. Either Eren did it on purpose simply because of how gay they are, or he did it to show that it was something special.

He ripped through the wrapping paper, to reveal a wooden case. One similar to what one would tools and the like in. He hesitated, and looked up at Eren suspiciously, who prompted him to open it.

Armin opened it slowly. Eren grinned as Armin stared. He just stared for a good 30 seconds, before Eren had to get his attention. “Armin? Do you like the gift?”

Armin continued to gawk, but responded. “Eren… You got these? ALL of these? For me to paint with?” Eren nodded. The gift was an entire assortment of different brushes, colors, and even watercolor paints, all in that case. He couldn’t believe it. It might’ve seemed like nothing to anybody else, but this was everything to Armin.

“So, do you?” Eren inquired, giving a cheeky grin. However, he didn’t need a spoken response, as Armin’s tail started to wag rapidly, and he jumped to tackle the brunette.

“Thank you so much! I love it!” He hugged the man tightly. Eren laughed, “You’re welcome, but it was really nothing! I know you love painting, and even though you never let me see what you paint, I figured I should still get you more supplies anyway, even if I’ll never see what they look like.”

Armin only thanked him again and again, until Eren convinced him to calm down. Armin let go of him, “I’m sorry, I got excited… but I really loved the gifts, thank you!”

“Ah, it was nothing~” Eren almost bragged, feeling a bit too proud of himself. Armin chuckled.

“Oh, by the way…” Eren began, “Why were you sleeping on the couch? I was wondering why you weren't in bed when I woke up, especially since you were cooped up in the other room all day.”

Armin gave a nervous smile, “Oh, that! Well, actually, my gift for you has something to do with that…”

“Oh?” Eren tilted his head. Armin led him to his art room, an extra room in the house that Eren generously made into a room for Armin to work on his art, after he found out Armin took interest in it. “Whoa. You're actually letting me into your art room? This must be special.” Eren said jokingly.

Armin rolled his eyes, walking over to the canvas. He smiled as he slowly removed the sheet that was covering it. “Ta-da…!”

Eren gasped, “What… A-Armin…!”

The painting was of the two of them, sitting on a hill gazing at the sunset in the horizon. The sunset was colored with beautiful orange, yellow, pink, and purple; the hill was painted a light green color, and the two figures of them, while rather sloppy, were still quite detailed and you could tell they were painted with the idea of it being perfectly precise. He recognized the scene from their very first date out together. It amazed him how Armin could remember and envision the scene so vividly. How could he even finish something like this on such short notice? Eren stood with his mouth agape, staring in awe for what seemed like hours. He finally spoke, though it came out as barely more than a whisper, “Armin, you… you painted this?!”

“I-I’m really sorry, it’s not perfect! I was kind of in a rush! It was actually something I’d been working on for a while that I was sure would’ve been a bust... I'll be sure to make some corrections to it later, but for now it’s--”

Eren gave him a sweet, chaste kiss. “Armin, it's perfect. I love it. Thank you so much. This is nothing compared to the gifts I got you! It’s so nice and pretty…” He gasped, “Imagine what it would look like with the new watercolors!”

Armin blushed, “You're welcome… I'm so glad you like it, I was really nervous!”

The brunette laughed. “Well, I love it to pieces. Not as much as I love you, though.” He smiled, placing a small kiss on the bridge of the blonde’s nose, making him giggle.

They both walked back into the living room, sitting on the couch, Armin leaning his head on other's shoulder.

“But wait… What did the painting have to do with you sleeping on the couch?”

“Ah… Um, well, because I was in such a rush to complete it, I stayed up for a while. Afterwards, I was so beat I just threw myself onto the couch and fell asleep. Still, I barely got two hours of sleep last night. But it was worth it.” Armin looked up at him, beaming, despite his drooping eyelids.

“Aw, Armin! You should've told me! You look really tired, let’s get you to the bedro--”

Armin snuggled closer to him. “No… I'm just fine sleeping right here… Next to you…”

“Really? Are you sure? I mean--” The soft, purr-like snores coming from the neko told him it was too late. He sighed, then laughed. “Ok, fine, whatever.”

He gently kissed his forehead, “Merry Christmas, Armin."

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(THESE TWO ARE SO GAY OMG)
(TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2018 )
(WHAT A COINCIDENCE????? WTH)
(THATS A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF GAY)
(ANYWAY GOODBYE MY WEEBS)