"Wake up, Robby! It's Christmas!" The loud wake-up call was followed by an onslaught of warmth as a body nestled close to Robin and a wet kiss pressed against his cheek.

While still getting assaulted with kisses, Robin cautiously opened his eyes and peered toward the window. Big snowflakes flowed in the dark cold night. "It's still the middle of the night," he groaned. "I don't think we need to get up just yet."

"But Santa's been here already," Tyler protested in a pouty tone.

Trying to hold back a chuckle, Robin enveloped his boyfriend's eager body with his arms and pulled him close, like a blanket. "Are you five years old?" he asked and buried his nose in blonde curls while preparing to fall back to sleep.

"No, but my sister is," Tyler mumbled while kissing Robin's neck and continuing downward. "And Emmie should be awake soon. Then no one else will sleep either."

Sleep started to seem less interesting anyway as Robin felt his body react to the soft pecks placed across his chest.

"We could, of course.... stay in bed a little bit," Tyler whispered as his lips touched the top of Robin's abdomen. "To celebrate Christmas together before we get up."

"We... shouldn't..." Robin muttered, trying to sound like he meant it. "Your cousins will hear us."

Robin had shared a room with Tyler for about a week now since his apartment in Mr. Royce's house wouldn't be ready until the new year, and they had--very reluctantly--refrained from intimate activities during that time. It just didn't feel proper to engage in such closeness when the house was full of people for the Christmas celebrations. Tyler's cousins Martin and William, who usually worked at branches of their father's company in other cities, had come home a few days ago, his oldest cousin Lance had arrived the day before, and his youngest cousin Janie, who was still in high school, didn't have her usual packed schedule of after school activities, which meant she spent more time in her room. All the cousins occupied bedrooms on the same floor, with only thin walls in between.

Of course, that didn't mean Robin and Tyler didn't want to engage in intimate shenanigans. In fact, Robin had trouble thinking of anything else anytime Tyler was close. Every glance, touch, or kiss made him relive what had gone down in his dorm room right before he moved out.

Robin couldn't wait until tonight, when they would exchange gifts with each other, far away from the families prying eyes. One naughty gift, for one naughty boy, whose main hobby these days seemed to be to get Robin inappropriately riled up.

"They're asleep," Tyler assured him. "And they'll survive if they hear something."

That might be true but Robin wasn't sure he would survive the shame of having Tyler's relatives hear them pleasure each other, or even worse, walk in on them mid-session. But he also wasn't sure he was capable of declining Tyler's advances.

Just as Tyler's hand started to tug at the top of Robin's pajama pants, a timid knock on the door disrupted their actions.

"Ty!" a squeaky voice called out. "Robby! Santa's been here."

"I knew she was on her way," Tyler mumbled. He lifted his lips from Robin's skin. The absence of touch made Robin groan in frustration. "I'm coming, Emmie," Tyler called out as he peeked out from under the blanket. "I just need to... put on my leg first."

He crawl in under the blanket again and placed a kiss on Robin's lips. "Are you... alright?" he asked cheekily. "Like to get up, I mean."

The blonde curls haloing around Tyler's face made him look adorably angelic. Way too innocent to be the cause of the issue in Robin's pants that made getting up and hanging out with the family inadvisable at the moment.

"I will be," Robin muttered, trying to picture himself rolling around in the snow outside."Let's just go join Emmie. I mean, we can't do other stuff anyway. Not with her waiting out there."

With a mischievous smile, Tyler patted Robin's groin lightly, which made his boyfriend expel a muffled cry.

"Not cool," Robin mumbled and gently pushed Tyler away from him. "Go get your leg, you tease."

While Tyler fiddled with his leg, Robin looked out the window and imagined dancing outside in the Arctic winds. It helped his current predicament somewhat.

***

When the sun started to dawn outside, the family room of the Caster house was already in disarray as Emmie had succeeded in waking the whole family for gift opening at an ungodly hour. Droves of wrapping paper and ribbons cluttered the space, having been torn off handpicked gifts for all the members of the family. A smell of glazed ham laid over the mess as the family, by tradition, indulged in ham sandwiches for Christmas breakfast after the gift opening proceedings.

Slightly overwhelmed, Robin leaned back on the sofa and looked at the pile of gifts he'd received. Mostly regular everyday stuff that a college student needed. Notebooks, pens, socks, t-shirts, and toiletries. There were also a few books thrown in there, but not the kind of boring books his mom used to give him. A glossy Psychology Encyclopedia, that would serve him well while studying his new major, was coupled with a bunch of brightly colored YA books, most of them LGBTQ-themed. Usually, Robin wasn't a big reader of non-fiction, since his mother had considered it a waste of time, but he looked forward to diving into these stories. Perhaps reading about young people like himself would help him find his place in the world.

Absentmindedly, Robin started to flip through the pages in one of the books. The tutoring storyline spoke to him. "Are you going to start reading right away?" Tyler asked, peeking out from his own mountain of gifts--colorful sneakers, a couple of videogames, and a new bright red Liverpool jersey were among the loot. He leaned over Robin's shoulder to peek at the text.

"I'm just looking," Robin replied. "Maybe you want to read it as well?"

Tyler shook his curls and crinkled his nose. "I read for school," he said decisively. "That's enough."

Robin really wasn't surprised that his boyfriend wasn't a voracious reader, as actually making Tyler sit down and focus on something was always a chore. Perhaps he would appreciate if Robin read the books out loud to him though.

"I'd love to borrow the books," Aunt Donna chimed in. "There was a lovely girl in the bookstore that I asked for help to find suiting books and I became quite interested in reading them myself with the way she talked them up."

Robin nodded while he discreetly wiped a tear from his eye. The unconditional support from Tyler's aunt was so different from anything he was used to with his own mother. Just the fact that Donna had gone to a bookstore and made sure to find books that would appeal to Robin meant a lot to him.

Hopefully, the books weren't too steamy. Because then their book sharing might become awkward.

"Ty! Robby! Open this now!" Emmie threw herself between Robin and Tyler to take their attention away from anything that wasn't her. The little girl was dressed for the occasion in a dress that looked like a Christmas tree and she had reindeer antlers sticking out of her puffy hair. In her hands was a gift wrapped in glittery pink, a sign that she had picked the paper herself.

"This is from me!" she proudly exclaimed and placed the gift in Robin's lap while she crawled into her brother's arms. "Aunt Donna helped a little."

"Mostly with the wrapping," Aunt Donna explained. "Emmie did almost everything else herself."

"Open now!" Emmie commanded and slapped her little hands on the paper, which made it crinkle. Robin couldn't do anything but obey the demanding little lady.

Robin turned the gift to unstick the tape because he wasn't a heathen--like a certain blonde boy next to him--who tore through wrapping paper willy-nilly. Emmie wiggled impatiently in Tyler's lap while Robin unfolded the neatly tucked-in corners.

The back of a picture frame was revealed. "Turn it over!" Emmie yelled. Apparently, she assumed Robin didn't know how picture frames worked. Admittedly, there were a lot of things he didn't have a handle on, but picture frames weren't on that list.

So he flipped the frame over, and almost burst into tears again.

Because on the other side was a drawing, with the obvious crooked slant of child's hand, of two stick figures holding hands.

One figure had a blob of yellow on top and a gray line at the bottom of the left leg while the other had spiky dark lines on top and an anxious expression.

Underneath, "Ty and Robby" was written, coupled with a big heart.

"Thank you, Emmie," Robin mumbled, swallowing as the tears once again tried to well up. Dammit, he wasn't accustomed to this kind of family Christmas. All the emotional support and love was wearing him out.

"You did capture my handsomeness very well," Tyler complimented his little sister and hugged her close to him. "As well as Robin's cuteness." He bent over the floppy reindeer antlers to place a kiss on Robin's cheek, which caught a stray tear that he hadn't been able to stop.

A firm knock on the door interrupted the proceedings "We're not expecting anyone else, are we?" Tyler asked, confused.

"Maybe we are..." Aunt Donna replied mysteriously, in the tone of voice a mom uses to convince her children Santa is real. "You and Robin should probably go down and check."

Tyler lifted Emmie from his lap before grabbing Robin's hand. "Come one, cutie," he said.

With the warm hand in his, Robin became brave enough to push down the wave of anxiousness that the unexpected knock had torn up. Not knowing what was about to happen was something he had trouble handling. But with Tyler next to him, he always felt safer.

Down the stairs, they went and toward the door. Tyler pressed down the handle.

"Merry Christmas boys!" Mr. Royce greeted the two pajama-clad boys as the door flew open. "Are you enjoying your Christmas so far?"

"Merry Christmas to you as well!" Tyler replied. He poked Robin, who had momentarily gone mute as Mr. Royce's presence startled him, to make him utter the same phrase.

"Merry... Christmas," Robin stuttered. "We're... good. We got gifts." He took a deep breath to try to find some more eloquent words.

"We're just done unwrapping," Tyler filled in. "Now we're having breakfast and watching cartoons."

"Good," Mr. Royce replied, just as Aunt Donna descended the stairs as well. "Nice to see you again, Mrs. Caster," he greeted her. Apparently, they knew each other already. Perhaps they were in cahoots in some way. Aunt Donna's mysterious smile certainly seemed to indicate that.

"Likewise, Mr. Royce," Aunt Donna replied.

"You might wonder why I'm here, Robin," Mr. Royce started. "On Christmas Day and all. But the holidays are kind of the reason I'm here. I wanted to make sure you received gifts this Christmas since I know it's your first Christmas without family around, so I called Mrs. Caster to enquire what they were planning. She assured me they had already bought plenty of gifts for you, so you wouldn't be lacking in that department."

"I like buying gifts." Aunt Donna shrugged. It seemed she wanted to assure Robin that having an extra person on her gift list hadn't been a chore. "And no one in my family likes to get books as gifts so it was fun picking those out for you."

"But I still wanted to give you something," Mr. Royce continued. "So, I thought about what you needed, and I know you're already saving up for a computer yourself, and well... perhaps you should go find out what I got you for yourself. Your gift is on the back of my truck."

For the third time this morning, Robin felt tears welling up. These emotions were wreaking havoc on his tear canals. Once again, he couldn't speak. But, inspired by Emmie, he knew another way to respond.

He took two steps forward and threw his arms around the big man in front of him. The embrace he received back felt a lot like his own father's used to feel. Robin had missed those hugs. Jon Erie had often come home very late from work--after his wife had gone to bed already--but he always took the time to sneak into his son's room for a brief snuggle before his wife knew he was even home.

"Thank you," Robin whispered against the scratchy tweed of Mr. Royce's jacket.

"You don't even know what it is yet, son," Mr. Royce chuckled in reply.

"Here," Tyler said and nudged Robin on the shoulder. "Put on these boots and we'll go out there."

With coats thrown on atop their pajama and snow boots on their feet, the boys, accompanied by Aunt Donna and Mr. Royce, braced the cold together.

As they arrived by Mr. Royce's truck, Robin spotted a big bow on something that hung on the back. Something blue and metallic.

A bike. A brand new bike just for him.

He reached the gift to let his fingers trace the cold frame. Robin didn't even know how to bike, as his mother had never let him. But now, having escaped her grasp, he would finally have the opportunity to do everything he'd longed for.

"I figured you needed it," Mr. Royce huffed, out of breath from the trek through the snow. "To get to school from my house."

"Thank you," Robin mumbled once again. "Although I don't actually know how to bike..."

"I'll teach you," Tyler assured him with a cold kiss on the cheek. "Although my physiotherapist might need to teach me how to bike again first..."

"I'm sure one of the other kids can teach you if Tyler can't," Donna assured Robin. "It sounds like Lance will be around for a while, as he's not quite sure what to do after the army, and he's always loved to bike. Maybe he can practice with both of you."

Once again, Robin threw his arms around Mr. Royce, to show his gratitude and revel in the fatherly embrace. "I love the gift," he told the big man.

"Would you like to come inside with us, Mr. Royce?" Aunt Donna asked while jumping a bit to stay warm in the freezing temperature. "It's quite chilly here and I'm sure Robin would like to have you around for a while longer."

"I don't want to inconvenience you-" Mr. Royce hesitated. Robin definitely related to that feeling of not wanting to be in the way.

"Nonsense," Aunt Donna interrupted. "We got plenty of food and I'm sure Emmie will enjoy having a new person around to detail the plot of Frozen to. So if you don't mind getting blathered at by a five-year-old, I encourage you to accept the invite." Donna fired off one of her patented warm smiles. The kind of smile no one could say no to.

"I think I can handle a five-year-old," Mr. Royce chuckled and patted Robin on the back. "And I was just planning a relaxed day at home for Christmas, so I don't have anyone waiting for me."

"Well, both you and Robin are part of the Caster family now," Aunt Donna declared. "So you're staying with us for the day."

Apparently, neither of them had a choice in the matter. And neither of them would have wanted to make another choice anyway.

Author's Note: I think there are still 2 chapters left in this story. One of the boys giving each other gifts, and one of them... playing with said gifts :)