Merry Christmas everyone! 

Perhaps your forgetful and procrastinating author underestimated how much she was planning to write for this and how little time she gave herself. So the next chapter – or two chapters if I decide to split it – might be either today or probably tomorrow.

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As the sun rays begin to peek through the windows of Chosen's bedroom and trickle onto his face, Chosen stirs. Or maybe it's the faint sound of music in his ears that wakes him. Nonetheless, The Chosen One shifts a bit in the messy covers and his eyes flutter open.

Looking over at the calendar on his wall, a large word has been circled in red on his calendar in Dark's handwriting. Christmas; well at least in one more day anyway.

"It's beginning to look a LOT like CHRISTMASSS~~"

At the familiar sound of Dark's voice Chosen lets out a sigh, his eye twitching slightly as his senses are woken up just a bit more from the singing downstairs.

"Goddamnit..." he mutters to himself as he pushes himself up in bed.

Stepping quietly downstairs with his hand on the banister, Chosen rolls his eyes fondly at the sight in front of him, a small smile tugging on his lips as the sleep in his system begins to fade away.

Humming to himself and stepping in time to the beat, The Dark Lord hangs ornaments one-by-one onto the christmas tree which is positioned against the living room wall near the window and backdoor, just a metre or two away from the fireplace.

"Ba–dadada," Dark accidentally drops a bauble and quickly picks it up, "Shiiit."

Vira, Dark's small, red, robot spider which he programmed to NOT kill anyone – a more pet-like edition of the Virabot – crawls up to Dark's shoulder and settles there, clicking her little claws together.

Chosen leans against the wall near the staircase, watching Dark decorate the tree and interact with Vira. A small warmth buzzes in his chest in which Chosen has to remind himself to not stare for too long.

"For someone who claims to despise festivity, you sure do seem to be enjoying yourself over there," he comments with a teasing tone.

Dark immediately perks up and nearly drops another ornament, quickly turning to look at the other. He didn't think Chosen would be up yet, although he's not gonna mind the company. A grin spreads across his face.

"Well look who's up~," Dark coos with a smile, "Also shut up," his expression flattens with mock annoyance, "I'm not enjoying myself...i'm just..." he tries to think of an excuse, stuttering for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh.

Vira lets out a small, mechanical chirp.

Chosen huffs softly and shakes his head in amusement, walking down the small step into the living room. He crosses his arms and looks at the Christmas tree next to the other, running his eyes over the work Dark has done.

"Putting up the Christmas tree on Christmas eve? Bit late doncha think?"

"Nahh, just in time honestly. You like it?" Dark asks, feeling proud of his work with his hands on his hips.

"Not bad," Chosen shrugs. He sees Dark sulk out of the corner of his eyes from his comment, in which Chosen smiles a little, walking past and giving Dark a pat on the shoulder that isn't occupied by Vira, "It looks great."

Dark can't help but smile a little when Chosen compliments his work. It makes him feel warm inside for some reason. Yet he plays it off with an offended tone as he talks to his robot spider, "Well at least someone likes it, don't ya girl?"

Vira makes a "skrr" sound, scuttling in a circle on Dark's shoulder, evoking a soft giggle from her creator.

Chosen walks into the kitchen which is connected to the living space, one big open room with the front door on the end where the kitchen and stairs are. Looking down at the bench, he picks up a small piece of paper and reads the shopping list left by Dark.

"Cracker things with...real gunpowder inside?" Chosen gives Dark a pointed look.

A mischievous grin breaks out onto Dark's face as he slides on over next to Chosen, "Whaaat? All the more fun with a little firepower."

Chosen rolls his eyes, letting out an unconvinced hum, "Do those even exist?"

"I know a guy..."

Chosen does not want to know so he's not gonna question it, instead reading the rest of the list which seems to just be food and stuff for tomorrow. The Second Coming and his friends are coming over tomorrow, along with Vic who's around an hour drive away – he lives on a farm property – and will probably annoy the hell out of Chosen and Dark.

Usually it's just the two of them for Christmas, but they managed to scrape together enough money to have a nice lunch and open presents with the others. Chosen and Second's idea anyway. Dark hasn't been too keen on the idea of having a bunch of people in their house.

Once he's read over the list, Chosen puts it down onto the bench again and begins scanning the cupboards and fridge for anything else they might need, "Should I go on the shopping run or–"

"DIBS NOT GOING!" Dark immediately yells.

The Chosen One lets out a sigh and shrugs, "Well that settles that. Dumbass.."

"Prick," Dark smirks a little, eyeing Chosen with his elbow resting on the counter and his cheek propped against his hand. How couldn't he resist annoying the other? It's The Dark Lord's second favourite activity after all.

"Don't start," he glances at Dark out of the corner of his eyes, ignoring the way his face feels a little warm from the cocky smirk on the engineer's face.

Vira scurries across the bench, letting out a chitter and crawling up Chosen's arm. He wasn't fond of Vira at first due to her resemblance of Dark's old creations, but overtime she grew on Chosen's heart, to the point where he just lets the robot spider crawl all over him sometimes.

Dark falls quiet, his eyes shifting from his companion to his creation before settling on the whole picture. Chosen smiling and chuckling softly as Vira nuzzles into his neck. His two best friends...the two people – one being a robot spider – he would fight for. Of course he doesn't care. Why would he care? Or even love– psshh.

An idea suddenly pops into Dark's head as he watches the interaction, his eyes focusing even more on the two. He slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone, switching to the camera app and aiming the camera at Chosen.

From the sound of a photo being taken, Chosen's dart towards Dark's phone where the noise came from, realising all too late what deed has been done when he sees the other's stupid grin.

"Did you just take a photo of me!?"

"Nooo...."

Chosen scoffs and puts Vira down on the bench, pouting with an embarrassed blush, "Dark!"

Dark laughs and quickly runs off with his phone, clutching it to his chest. He's not entirely sure why he took the picture. Chosen just...looked nice. Vira and Chosen looked nice.

"Delete that!" Chosen exclaims, letting out a groan and burying his face in his hands. He can see that Dark is running away, but he can't be bothered chasing after him.

"Only if you bake gingerbread cookies with meeee!!" Dark's voice echoes from another room.

This idiot...

"I am NOT baking gingerbread cookies with youuu!!" Chosen whines in complaint. Last time they even tried to bake together it did not end well. They both came to an agreement afterwards to never do it again.

After hearing no reply, Chosen rolls his eyes with a sigh and begins walking upstairs to look for where Dark ran off to. If he knows anything about Dark, it's that he's a stubborn bastard who won't stop for anybody and certainly likes to have fun. So it's obvious that the bastard wants Chosen to follow him.

First, he pokes his head into Dark's bedroom, scanning the characteristically traited room with sharp eyes. After no avail, Chosen takes a step back and runs his eyes down the small hallway, a small smirk tugging at his lips. It almost feels like some sort of game; a game that he isn't opposed to playing.

After checking his own bedroom, the balcony and Dark's lab, Chosen frowns a little in confusion. If Dark did go upstairs then those were the only places he could've been, not including the roof or if he just flew off somewhere from the balcony.

Putting his hands on his hips and looking down the hallway again, Chosen hums in thought. Where could he be...?

Little does Chosen know, Dark stares intently at the back of Chosen's head, a sly and mischievous smirk plastered on his face. Pushing off of the wall he was leaning against, he silently steps closer.

Chosen perks up a little bit at the sound of very quiet and sneaky footsteps on the floorboards. When it crosses his mind that Dark is behind him, his shoulders untense and Chosen gives a slightly playful look over his shoulder.

"I'm still not gonna delete the photo, Cho," Dark mutters smugly, obviously proud of the image he captured. He rocks back and forth on his heels, his hands casually clasped behind his back.

Chosen rolls his eyes with an amused hum. He knew that Dark wouldn't delete it but Chosen couldn't help but humour him. Turning around and meeting the other's eyes, he feels that same weird feeling buzzing in his chest. Looking into Dark's eyes; fiery eyes. Such... gorgeous eyes at that–

Woah. Chosen. Keep those thoughts suppressed.

"Also, I'm not giving up the offer of making perfect gingerbread cookies with your perfect chef lord," Dark grins and places a hand on his chest with pride, "Free of price too~"

Chosen watches as Dark places a hand on his shoulder. Despite the casualness of the action, he can feel the warmth through the touch. It's pleasant to say the least.

"I think I'll pass down the offer," he huffs, "No matter how little you price it."

"What!? Chooooooo!! But it'll be funnnn!"

"Fun? More like a horrible idea."

"But Chosen, we have all the things we need," Dark splays out his hand and counts off his fingers with each ingredient, "Butter, sugar, flour....uh...ginger?"

Chosen gives Dark an unconvinced look, "We have the ingredients. We don't have the skill."

"What skill do we need!? It's literally just looking at a recipe and then putting everything together and then whacking it into the oven! I mean, even Vira could do that with her little spider claws. I think you're just making excuses because you're scared that I'll just obviously be more qualified to make gingerbread than you. You'll probably light the cookies on fire by accident when we're decorating them, knowing your sense of temper. Myself howev-"

Whilst Dark is having one of his prolonged, unrequired rants – which usually last around a full minute if Chosen can remember correctly – Chosen mostly stops listening, only hearing vague chunks of sentences blurred in the background. Distracted, he looks over to his left until the hallway window catches his eye.

"I mean, how hard can decorating be!? All we need is black and red icing because like any other colours are just meaningless. Black and red are the only necessary colours in the world. Black for...death. Red for...blood. Death and blood. Romance can suck it–"

"Dark."

Dark pauses mid sentence and looks at Chosen, his mind being yanked back to reality, "Huh? Yeah?" he answers with a tone of frustration, not entirely happy about being interrupted.

Chosen stares out the window silently for a couple more moments, engrossed by the view, "It's snowing."

The frown falls from Dark's face, instead being replaced by a look of surprise. He steps up close to the window next to Chosen, peering out through the glass, grimacing slightly from the ice around the edges of the windowpane. Dark's never been fond of the cold. Although any discomfort is quickly wiped away once his eyes land on a single snowflake drifting past his view.

Chosen can barely remember the last time it snowed around here. Where they live in the Outernet the weather is usually the weather is mostly evened out with sunny skies and the usual amount of clouds, sometimes rain and sometimes frost in winter. But never often snow unless you live up in the mountain side of town. It must've snowed overnight as well.

Looking over, he can see the glimmer of excitement and awe in Dark's eyes. Perhaps, from the way Dark grins, Chosen can assume the same sparkle is in his own eyes. "Holy shit, come on!" Dark exclaims, grabbing for Chosen's hand.

Letting out a small yelp, Chosen watches the blandly painted walls whoosh by as he's yanked off down the hallway. He quickly catches his footing just before the top of the staircase – thank cursors for that – and hurries down the stairs after Dark, "Jeez! I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"Cho, it's fucking snowing!" Dark practically shrieks with astonishment, his hand gripping Chosen's firmly but not hard enough to hurt.

The front door swings open from the force of The Dark Lord's free hand. A cold gust of air circles into the house through the doorway, reminding both of them how cold winter can be. The Chosen One lets out a huff of awe. The grass and trees are frosted, snowflakes drifting down and falling onto any surface around.

They share a brief glance before immediately slamming the door shut and running off through the house as if a thousand thoughts thoughts and feelings were just conveyed between two sets of eyes. Chosen's expression had excitement within it although was more pondering on the question of what Dark has in mind. Whilst Dark's expression was nothing but excitement and mischief, his mind completely set on going outside to play in the snow.

Despite both of their ages – Dark being 22 and Chosen being 24 – it's a secret between them that they like to have their childish fun sometimes. Dark would never let Chosen live down the opportunity to mess around every once in a while, even if that means getting drunk at a bar and accidentally hitting on someone. Yes, this did in fact happen. Dark had to save Chosen from the social disaster afterwards.

As Vira scurries across the floorboards with no thought in the world, Dark scoops her up and plops her on his shoulder after putting his shoes on, inflicting an annoyed hiss from the robot spider. He grins and pets her little head with his finger, "Don't give me that attitude," Dark then shimmies her around as he slips on his crimson red jacket, "We're goin' outside. It's snowing– hey don't go!" he whines as Vira crawls off of him grumpily and scuttles away.

Meanwhile, Chosen stumbles a little as he slips on his outdoor shoes and then grabs his black and white jacket. Despite the slightly charred sleeves which is a result of many mishaps with fire use, the jacket is one that he would probably never throw out. It brings back too many memories to just discard.

Before he knows it, Dark has grabbed hold of his hand again and has yanked him off out the door, "C'mon you idiot!" he laughs, stepping down the front porch steps.

The steps are slippery beneath their feet, especially for Chosen as Dark just drags him along in a hurry, "Slow down, goddamnit!" he huffs and holds onto Dark's hand a little tighter.

The two of them become engulfed in chilled air, shoes crunching along the layer of snow that's formed on the ground. As their running comes to a slow walk, Dark can't bring himself to let go of Chosen's hand.

"Fuck, it's cold.." Dark comments after a moment of quiet peace, turning to glance at the other with a lightened expression. The last time he can remember being in the snow with Chosen was when they were a lot younger than now. It feels like such a long time ago.

Chosen nods and looks around, "Yeah," he mutters under his breath before briefly glancing down at their hands, "It is."

At the same time – perhaps only a second later – Dark also looks down at their hands. As the both of them then turn their heads back up to look at each other, Dark's mind completely blanks for a moment. It's a realisation that they've both paid attention to the hand holding.

"Um," Chosen blinks at the other awkwardly. He's not exactly sure what to think. It's not that they've never held hands before. It's the idea of not letting go after a good while. One thing to know about The Chosen One is that he cannot. And I mean can not. Read. Social cues.

Dark huffs out a half-assed, awkward laugh, his vision darting all around the place except for his friend's eyes. As a normal defence mechanism it's in his nature to quickly make an excuse, make a joke out of it, or question the other person instead. And you may be thinking, "that's not a healthy way to deal with something!"

It's The Dark Lord.

"What?" he blurts out almost immediately, giving Chosen a questioning and amused expression.

Chosen raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean, what?"

"What do you mean, what do you mean, what?"

"I meant what I meant. I'm wondering what's going on with you."

"What's going on with me!?"

"I don't know!!" Chosen groans with frustration and confusion, swiftly – too quickly – pulling his hand away. He realises how sweaty his hand suddenly is, even in this cold weather, looking down at it and wiping his palm over the fabric of his pants.

Dark pouts and crosses his arms after their hands separate. He continues to stare at Chosen as if trying to pierce through his eyes and decipher all his thoughts. Dark then gets an idea.

A weird tension begins to thicken in the air and Chosen looks away, feeling like he almost can't breathe as if his throat is clogged up with this thick air. "Y'know, we left the front door ope–"

Thump

It hits his face like an icy cold slap, making him splutter slightly and flinch in surprise. As the icy chunks of snow break apart and fall off his cheeks and nose, Chosen's eyes settle on Dark with a bewildered expression.

Dark stares back with a smug and amused smirk. He mentally applauds himself for such a good shot – although he never usually misses – and brushes the snow off his now cold hands, "Are you done being weird now?"

Just a short moment after speaking is when he notices the changes in Chosen's expressions, in which Dark takes amusement and excitement from. The flash off offence to the narrowing eyes that he can only assume to be challenging.

"Oh you're so on." Chosen mutters daringly.

A wide grin spreads across Dark's face and he takes a few energetic steps backwards, "Ohoho, you really wanna do this, Chocolate? You really don't know what you're getting into–" he pauses, seeing Chosen form a literal ball of ice from his palm. Fuck, Dark forgot he could do that.

Seeing the other walk closer, Dark only feels his heart speed up more. With adrenaline of course. Nothing else. His heart is not fluttering for ANY OTHER REAS–

"Dirty move, Cho. It's an unfair advantage dontcha think?" he remarks teasingly, continuing to step back in the same pace that Chosen is walking over to him, "But then again, I can just dodge and weave if you wish–"

In saying that, he immediately has to duck as Chosen hurdles an icy projectile at him. Dark let's out an impressed whistle and smirks mischievously, "Well alright."

Chosen reflects the same challenging look back at the other as he dodges one of Dark's messily crafted snowballs. A smirk forms on his lips as well and he decides to ditch the whole ice creation powers, instead bending over to roll up a snowball as well.

Snowballs hit the ground with the sound of a light patter, crumbling into the already formed snow. It's something that fills Chosen's sensitive ears – hollowheads tend to have stronger senses – along with the pleasant sound of Dark's laughter; Chosen ends up laughing as well.

Eventually, Dark groans with annoyance – his voice still filled with amusement and laughter – and flicks some ice off his hand, "Dude, the snow is cold as fuck on my hands! We need gloves or somethi–" his sentence is cut short as a snowball hits him in the face.

Chosen chuckles, "Then just admit defeat so you don't have to freeze your hands!" a snowball hits his face at the same time.

Dark scoffs playfully as if offended by the comment, "Admit defeat!? Do you know who you're talking to, mr!?"

Wiping some snow off his face and spitting some out of his mouth from when he was shot in the face multiple times, Chosen blinks through the haze. Dark. Dark's running towards him– OH GOD–

The force of Dark tackling him hits Chosen like a bus and makes him grunt as they fall onto the snowy ground in a messy pile of limbs.

Chosen blinks and looks up at the other in bewilderment, "Wh–What the hell was that for!?" he sputters.

He's met by Dark's devilish grin and laughter, "I'm attacking you in a way that won't freeze my hands off! Plus, snowballs were getting boring."

"Does that mean that you had to tackle me!?" Chosen exclaims in surprise and frustration despite the joy and amusement that's in the air between them.

"Oh, definitely–GAH!" Dark yelps as Chosen rolls them over so that Chosen is on top, "Pfft," he grins and laughs, picking up a handful of snow and shoving it into Chosen's face.

They begin to roll around on the snow as the snowball fight quickly turns into a playful wrestling match. Shoving snow in each other's faces and attempting to pin arms and legs down.

"Is this the best you got, Cho?" Dark laughs out breathlessly, struggling to try and get Chosen off of him. He then wraps his legs around Chosen's hips and spins them over, causing Chosen to huff in exhaustion. Chosen pants quietly and lets his body go limp under Dark. Turns out wresting is a lot more tiring than it seems, even to people like The Dark Lord and The Chosen One.

The action makes Dark pause; he thought Chosen would put up more of a fight. But then again, Dark can feel the torturous feeling of tire and cold seeping into his body.

What surprises Dark even more is when he feels a familiar and warm cup his cheek. He looks down at Chosen and their eyes meet in a quiet gaze; it makes both of their eyes soften. Dark's mind is racing at a hundred miles per hour – you could say his heart is too – and for a second he tenses against the touch but then slowly relaxes.

Before he can question his friend, Chosen's hand slides past Dark's cheek and tangles through Dark's red locks; wet from melted snow. Chosen gently pushes Dark's head down to rest against his upper chest.

As Dark lies there without protest and can't find words to say, Chosen stares up at the sky with conflicted eyes. He doesn't appreciate this sudden intrusion of emotions, this warm feeling included. It's nothing that Chosen is used to feeling and he can't put a name on it.

A couple moments later – both of them relaxing against each other meanwhile – Dark mumbles lazily, "You're warm."

Chosen let's out a soft chuckle, "And you're cold," he looks down at Dark properly and notices the slight shiver through his body, "Jeez, you're really cold."

"Why do you think I didn't punch you when you pushed my head against your chest?"

"I can think of a few reasons."

"What?"

"What?"

"What reasons!?" Dark questions as Chosen slowly sits up. How you're comfortable, safe, relaxing. How I like you're touch. How I don't mind cuddling with you. Dark could never admit these things. He shifts off of Chosen reluctantly as the other tries to stand up.

Chosen helps Dark up, "I don't know, doesn't matter," he says dismissively and avoids eye contact, "C'mon, let's head inside before we both freeze to death."

Before getting too curious about what Chosen has meant, Dark's mind is distracted by the thought of going inside. Warm. Cosy.

"Yeah, good idea because fuck I'm cold," Dark grumbles. His voice is slightly breathy from the chilly climate.