Shishido does the meeting thing. Oh, dear.

Sasowareru (Be Invited)
by Monnie

Part 2

Meeting Ootori's parents wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought. He'd seen pictures of them, of course--a slim woman with her curly hair just a little lighter than Ootori's, maybe silver to his platinum, and a man with a very straight back, his dark hair very neat, and the kind of look in his eyes behind slim glasses that made Shishido think that he didn't take anything from anyone, even if his eyes were the same colour as Ootori's--a deep, determined chestnut.

He half-expected the man to be some kind of control freak who would frown over Shishido's ragged hair--it was longer, now, and he'd been meaning to have it trimmed or something--and the bandage he'd acquired on his cheek from playing street tennis. Sure enough, when the man strode onto the platform where Shishido was waiting, Shishido realised that he was tall--very tall, taller even than his son--and had all his creases creased and his buttons buttoned. Plus he even had a little stressed frown-line between his brows.

Plus he was a lawyer.

But then Ootori bounced up to the platform waving exuberantly, and Ootori's father--to Shishido's shock--smiled, and bowed his head in greeting. "We were looking for you on the other side. No wonder I missed you the first time around--from the way Choutarou describes you, we expected you to be maybe ten feet tall!"

Shishido retained just enough presence of mind to bow back, introduce himself, and not gape at the fact that the man who looked like he wouldn't know a joke if it bit him had just... teased him, he was pretty sure. Or teased someone.

"Papa!" Ootori looked scandalised. "Come on, Shishido-san, Mama and Meiko are waiting in the car--they wanted to come meet you, too..."

"Yes," Ootori's father grinned again--no, there wasn't any mistake. Shishido had most definitely read the man wrong. "And Meiko is convinced that you have wings and a hagoromo thanks to what her 'Niisan has been telling her, so try to convince her you're not a heavenly being gently, all right?" he raised a very official-seeming sort of eyebrow, a little.

Shishido had to laugh, even as poor Ootori spluttered in his own defense--rather incoherently. He was even starting to blush. Shishido only wasted a second considering whether or not this family would wonder why it was that he called Ootori 'Choutarou' when Ootori still used the '-san' with him, because it could sound kind of patronising, before speaking up. "Oi, Choutarou--uh, Ootori-kun, uh--" he'd been calling him by his first name for almost a year. His family was just going to have to deal with how it sounded, because Shishido certainly didn't mean it to be patronising. "Am I so bad you have to make up stories about me being some kind of tennyo to get your family to like me?"

Ootori gaped, and was just beginning to smile when Shishido winked at him.

Ootori's father's eyes twinkled. "Well, if you were a tennyo, I think we'd probably like you. Everyone likes beautiful young women who come down from the sky. You'll have to do, though. Well, you're pretty enough. Just like Choutarou said."

"Papa!" Ootori exclaimed, looking distinctly... well, mortified, as his hand came up to clutch his cross with something closely akin to panic, cheeks having made that adorable transition into a very distinct scarlet.

His father just laughed, a little. "Well, you did! All right, all right. It's Christmas, and I promised Choutarou I wouldn't tease him. He's so serious sometimes."

Shishido... just blinked, and then smiled, a little. "Considering, I mean, pretty much everyone on our whole tennis team thinks that they're funny, and a lot of the times, they're really not. So it's good that someone knows the right way to be serious--right, Choutarou?" he smiled in his partner's direction.

Ootori gave him a look so grateful it melted him.

"Well," the father chuckled, low in his throat, as they started walking. "That put me in my place. I'm glad that someone's watching out for him at that cut-throat school of yours--honestly, I thought he should have gone to Seigaku, but when he got into Hyotei, nothing would do but that he go there."

Shishido shot Ootori a startled look, and his partner glanced away, not meeting his eyes. He hadn't know that Hyotei was a choice, not the only choice, for his partner, and the thought of him having gone to Seigaku... he'd have fit in there for sure, but... "Seigaku's a good school, Ootori-san," and he meant that honestly, since it didn't look like Ootori was inclined to do anything but listen and maybe look a little horrified, and Shishido couldn't really much blame him. "But their loss, Hyotei's gain. I think it was a good thing for Hyotei that he joined us--he's a great tennis player. And a great partner."

And he meant that, too--Ootori, besides playing a mean game of tennis when he really got into the game, was a good friend--and Shishido wouldn't have given up being his roommate even if it had meant that he couldn't be on the Regulars anymore.

Some things were more important than a tennis game.

"Well," Ootori's father blinked, once, carefully, and Shishido wondered if maybe he'd just passed some sort of weird test. He hated being tested like that--it was just sneaky, and kind of underhanded, maybe--but, well, he couldn't really blame the man for wanting to make sure that his son's senpai wasn't some kind of user--since his son really was such a good boy. Shishido sure felt like a user sometimes, around Ootori, but he tried his best to give what he could... "If all his senpai watch out for him the way that you do, no wonder he didn't want to transfer out."

Transfer?!

Obviously, this was not the time to demand what that meant, but a look at Choutarou's suspiciously--really suspiciously--blank expression decided him. He really needed to have some kind of talk with his partner.

"Ah! Shishido-san, we're here."

He yanked himself from his wool-gathering with a start--to blink at Ootori's mother, coming out of the car to greet him. And who, despite looking small and slim next to her husband and son, was pretty much Shishido's height, maybe even a little taller, and could look him in the eye--and her eyes were a startling bright blue--before she bowed, a little. This is sort of weird. Though it explained why Ootori was so tall. "I hope you won't find us too strange, Shishido-kun," she chirruped, with a wide smile--and to his surprise, she reached out and grasped both his hands. "We've heard so much about you we feel like you're one of the family already!"

"Ohhh! You are handsome," came a voice from inside the car, a window scrolling downwards. "Like 'Niisan said."

Ootori groaned, a little, "Meiko..." and shot him an apologetic look, his cheeks a little flushed. Shishido blinked--he'd thought Ootori's father had just been joking about Ootori saying any such thing, but if Ootori's little sister said so, too... if he thought about it too hard, he was going to start blushing.

"You did! You did," she protested, poking her head out of the window even as the parents got into the front, talking softly. She didn't have Choutarou's silver hair or deep brown eyes, but there was most definitely a resemblance--maybe it was just in the way she smiled.

"Because you asked," he replied, firmly. "Sorry about this, Shishido-san, it must be embarrassing..."

Shishido just smiled, and patted his shoulder, informing him, low in his throat, "Trust me, Choutarou, this is nothing. You should see the way my brother goes at me. Besides..." he grinned, and nudged Ootori gently with a hip. "It's always nice to know your partner thinks you're handsome."

Ootori actually stuck his tongue out at him for that, and his blush really was starting to take over his face. "Okay, for that, you get to sit next to Meiko, Shishido-san!"

Shishido grinned, slid into the car beside Ootori's sister--who was a surprisingly adorable little girl, and she handed him a lollipop and plopped her cheek happily onto his shoulder--and decided that he wouldn't tell Ootori how much he liked it when Ootori acted just a little tough with him. It was more than a little cute.

Maybe this family visiting thing wouldn't be so bad, after all...

*_*_*_*

There was a brief moment of panic when Ootori pulled a pressed suit out of his closet, and started to get changed. In fact, it was such a moment of panic that Shishido couldn't even enjoy watching him taking off his button-down, undoing one little round at a time, that strong, pale chest slipping free in inches--and he normally really enjoyed watching that out of the corner of his eyes.

"Choutarou, you didn't tell me I needed a suit!" He'd asked his mother what people normally wore to a Christian mass, but she hadn't known, really. She'd never been to one. And even if Ootori had another suit, he really was a lot taller than Shishido... "Oh, man..."

Ootori shed his shirt and reached for the fresh collared shirt on his bed. "Hm?" he pulled the fresh shirt on, and starting doing the buttons up, careful--he really was meticulous when he wanted to be, and more than once, Shishido had wondered what it would be like to have his own hands skimming up that slim body, doing up all those buttons with the backs and tips of his fingers stroking against Ootori's chest through the thin cloth... it made his mouth go dry to think about it, just about every time.

Was it weird that he thought about helping Ootori put on his clothes as much as he thought about helping him take them off?

"Oh--that's all right, Shishido-san," Ootori shook his head, a little, and smiled, snapping Shishido just a little out of his haze. "You can just go as you are--my family dresses up for Christmas mass, but you don't have to. No-one will mind."

Except that with his cap, his denim jacket, and his jeans that were ragged around the ankles, he'd look like a ruffian, especially since he had the suspicion that when Ootori's family said 'dressing up,' they probably turned out pretty elegant. Shishido turned to his bag just as Ootori reached for his pants (his control only went so far, most days, and he wasn't a pervert, to watch him like that) and rummaged through it. He had brought something decent, hadn't he...?

And... oh, right. He'd brought it because he'd thought it might please Ootori if he wore it--it was the one piece of red clothing he owned, even if it was his favourite colour, and, well, red was a Christmas colour, wasn't it?--but it seemed like a pretty decent long-sleeved, collared shirt. He had a pair of slacks in his backpack, too... if he could borrow a tie from Ootori, maybe it would be okay.

Shishido breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to ask.

And swallowed, just a little.

Oh, Ootori cleaned up really well in a suit--maybe it was just that the cut of it fit his long, clean lines, or maybe it was the way it hung on him, smooth and dark enough that pale hair and paler skin looked like they were almost translucent against the heavy black cloth and the deep crimson shirt, but Shishido thought maybe he might have found a new favourite outfit on his partner. There was just something about the way that looked on him, the slim, tidy arc of his throat through the undone top buttons, without a tie... and that damned cross peeking through the open cloth, like the faintest glint of temptation.

Ootori was trying to do up the cufflinks without much success, and well, it was such a little thing, he'd let himself go just a little...

Shishido dropped the shirt and trousers he'd been holding to the bed and took the steps forward to help Ootori do up his cufflinks, slipping the little gold studs deftly through the stiff cloth, warm under his hands. And then he blinked, practicality overcoming this small pleasure even if he didn't let go of his partner's hand--Ootori never seemed to mind. "Choutarou... your cufflinks have tennis racquets on them."

Ootori smiled, a little sheepishly. "Only one does." He held out the other wrist. "See? This one has a tennis ball on it. My grandmother got them for me."

"Nice," he grinned, before realising that he was still holding onto Ootori's wrist, and let it go, walking back to pick up the collared shirt. "Hey, would this be okay? I mean, I haven't got a tie or anything, but... can't let you show me up all the way, right?"

Ootori just grinned. "Will you wear a Christmas tie?"

Shishido just sighed, long-suffering. Somehow, he'd known the question was coming--just because, well, if Ootori's influence made him think about being nicer than he would have been, normally... he had the sinking feeling that his roommate was getting sneakier. And besides, if he was wearing a Christmas-coloured shirt, how much more ridiculous could he get? "Okay, okay. But no reindeer." He thought about it for a moment--Ootori wouldn't have one, would he...? But you never knew... "And no mistletoe!"

Ootori wrinkled his nose at him for a second, and put the tie he'd picked up back into the drawer, looking mildly disappointed.

Yep. He's definitely getting sneakier. Not good.

Ootori's mother clapped her hands in delight when she saw them--evidently, the tie that they finally compromised on had been a gift from her--and Meiko cheerfully informed him that he and her 'Niisan matched--well, their shirts were just the same colour.

Altogether, mass wasn't too bad, though he felt a little ridiculous standing there in a tie which had little white snowmen on it. He tried his best to listen, even with all the standing and sitting and kneeling, and follow along with the prayer book once he'd examined the little wooden church, full to bursting, and with all the lights gold and red making the wood, and the people, all warm-looking even though it was a little cold outside.

It would have been weird if he actually said anything when people were saying things--well, he wasn't Christian--and what did "Alleluia" mean, anyway, but there really was... something pleasant, though he wasn't quite sure what, in the way the whole church seemed to ring with the voices of people answering the priest in one big chorus. And the songs, though they weren't really his type, were, well, kind of nice, in how everyone was singing along, so loud that the sound swelled inside him, a little like a hug, even when he didn't know the words that were up on the projector screen--like a concert for their God, almost, he thought. A happy sort of concert, because it was the day before Christmas, and it seemed like a lot of Christmas songs that they were singing during the mass--some of them he knew, too--were so thankful. He'd never really noticed that before.

But the real pleasure of it was that every chance he got, he snuck a look at Ootori's face. And if the songs were happy and thankful--oh, it was nothing compared to that look he got when he had his head back, a little, and his eyes closed when he sang, the sweetest little trace of a smile around his lips... or the way he had his eyes wide, so earnest that it made Shishido just want to hug him, when he said the answers to the priest--clearly, like he was the only one in the church. He'd known that Ootori was Christian... but he'd never really realised that Ootori believed, really believed, rather than sort of standing in the pews looking bored the way some kids their age were--and, well, understanding that, maybe he could understand, just a little, why Ootori thought the holiday was beautiful. If you honestly thought some kind of hope was in the world on Christmas day... well, Shishido didn't, not really, but if you did--then it really gave you something to be grateful for, didn't it?

He liked it, somehow, that Ootori had something he felt he could be grateful for. If only for that, maybe he'd have said the whole Christmas season, as much as he disliked it, could be worth it.

He knew he'd lost himself in his own thinking when a bit of motion beside him made him jump--and his heart skittered to a stop in his chest when he realised that Ootori had bent down beside him, and his face was so close, stained darker gold by the lights and what the Hell did he think he was doing and in the middle of church but oh boy whatever it was Shishido didn't have any plans to stop him--

Ootori hesitated, for just a heartbeat, and then--straightened, and ran his fingers slowly through Shishido's hair. Slowly enough for it to be a caress, almost, before his hand landed on Shishido's shoulder and squeezed, gently. "Peace be with you, Shishido-san."

He only had time to stare at his partner for a moment, his scalp tingling and, he suspected, his mouth dangling just a little bit open, like an idiot. From his other side, a hand latched onto his shoulder and he found himself pulled down towards... a rather wet kiss placed sloppily on his cheek, and a cheerful "Peace be with you, Shishido-san!" from Meiko.

What the...Hell...?

He realised what had happened only after there'd been much moving of people around him--and he tried to stay out of the way, really, but it was sort of hard to do that in a narrow church pew. Evidently, there was some part of the mass where people went around and kissed each other on the cheek--at least, Ootori's family did--but... apparently, Ootori had decided that it was weird to kiss his partner. No-one in the rest of his family even hesitated to include him--even Ootori's father, much to Shishido's shock, had brushed cheeks with him and made a kiss sound--even though they didn't kiss anyone else: they just nodded to everyone in the other pews, and said "Peace be with you."

Shishido couldn't blame Ootori, really, for not wanting to kiss him, even in the middle of church, maybe especially in the middle of church--it was different if it was family, and his partner wasn't family. He couldn't even really be disappointed, because there wasn't any telling what he'd have done if Ootori's lips had landed on his cheek before he'd actually realised what was going on. As it was, his heart was still doing a very weird drum tattoo in his chest with how close that soft, gentle mouth had been, in just that instant...

After that, he made very sure to pay attention to what was happening around him.

And--ah, what the Hell--Shishido joined in on the final verse of Joy To The World, after the priest had said, "Let us go now, and celebrate the day of his birth!" and it looked like everything was all done, since the priest and the people around him were walking back up the centre aisle. Just because it felt good to. Like maybe, for just a moment, even though he wasn't really a part of all this, he could share in it, a little.

To his surprise--even though he hadn't really done it because he'd wanted to show off for Ootori, it had just, well, seemed like a nice thing to do--he turned a little to find Ootori's eyes on him, wide and darkly copper, a little surprised, and he almost stopped singing, embarrassed... and then Ootori's hand slipped into his like it had during the Our Father song, and it was like they were singing "Joy To The World" together.

Maybe that was what people liked about carolling. He'd never thought about it before.

"I'm sorry mass was so long, Shishido-kun," Ootori's mother apologised as they walked towards the car, after Shishido had squirmed, uncomfortably and oddly wanting to hide behind his tall partner, though he wasn't much for hiding, through an introduction to the priest. "It must have been hard for you."

"But now's dinner, and I'm sure Okaasan's made us a feast, so that's worth sitting through mass for!" Ootori's father added, cheerfully. Shishido had come to the conclusion earlier that he just didn't understand how the man could have such a strict face, because he didn't think he'd ever met a nicer guy--well, except maybe for Ootori, since Ootori teased a lot less than his dad did. And no-one who reached down to take his wife's hand as they walked could really be mean, no matter how he looked...

Shishido smiled, maybe a little shyly. "Well... I mean, it wasn't too bad, actually. I didn't understand all of it, but the songs were sort of nice."

He blinked as fingers pushed into his--not Ootori's--it was too small, and too soft for his partner's--but Meiko-chan's, and she grinned up at him fiercely, all big blue eyes like her mother's, and... sparkle. Little girls were sort of scary, sometimes, but he had to admit she was cute--even though it made him blink, a little, to realise that she wasn't all that much shorter than he was... Ootori's family was just too tall. "They're my favourite part! 'Niisan's, too."

The shine in Ootori's eyes, though he didn't say anything, made Shishido glad that he hadn't tried to lie and say that he'd really liked it. The thought of lying to his trusting partner, even a white lie, always made him feel just a little ill--even if it didn't really matter, he had the feeling that Ootori would know.

And, more than anything, he wanted Ootori to be able to trust him. Even if it never led to something, or anything, because, well, Shishido wasn't used to being trustworthy--he wasn't used to anyone depending on him--but... Hell, he wanted to be. It didn't mean he was going to give up doing a prank now and again (and getting Jirou into a girl's uniform had been worth the laps that Atobe had given them the next day) or something, but that wasn't the same thing at all.

"Well, it's a day of obligation, so they always have a good choir on Christmas," Ootori's mother agreed, smiling as they all climbed into the car, and Shishido found himself again sandwiched between Ootori and his little sister. "You know, Choutarou, Meiko, one of you really should let Shishido-kun have the window."

Shishido blinked a little--he really didn't care one way or another--as Ootori blushed again, and mumbled a sorry as he made as if to get out of the car--but then Meiko piped up, "But this way, I can sit next to Shishido-san, and 'Niisan can sit next to him, too! So we can share him. 'Cause if I'm in the middle, then 'Niisan can't snuggle him at all."

And, as if to demonstrate, she plopped her head onto his shoulder again, and looked expectantly at her older brother

Shishido was sputtering with laughter before he could help himself--the thought of Ootori snuggling up to him in a car back seat, surrounded by his family, was just... well, frankly hilarious, and it was obvious that the little girl had absolutely no idea how strange what she'd said sounded--and that was okay because the parents were both laughing, too, and Meiko was complaining that she didn't get the joke.

But he couldn't help but notice that though Ootori was chuckling, too, exchanging a long-suffering look with Shishido, his cheeks were scarlet once again, and his fingers rose to touch his cross before they fell to his side.

*_*_*_*

They must have set the dining room table before heading to mass, while he and Ootori were just talking in his room, and he felt a little bad that he hadn't known about it and offered to help--he tried offering a hand as Ootori's parents headed into the kitchen, trailed by Meiko, but he was firmly and gently pushed out to stand next to Ootori, who was simply leaning against the table, the suit jacket discarded up in his room (much to Shishido's disappointment; well, it would have been silly if they'd all been eating dinner in suits...)

"They don't let me in there," Ootori explained, sheepishly, when Shishido looked to him for an explanation as to why he wasn't in the kitchen, too. "Papa says that I could burn water for tea, if I tried hard enough."

Shishido's brows furrowed as he frowned. "Hey, you're not a bad cook." He would know--they did split cooking duties, and there was nothing like waking up to the smell of tamago-yaki and sausage in the morning, walking out to see Ootori's little smile as he worked at their small stove... "And they let your sister in there, and not you?"

Ootori just chuckled. "Meiko takes cooking lessons, so she needs the practice. And..." he spread his hands, a little sheepishly. "She doesn't take up nearly as much space."

"Oh." Well, that was true enough... "Still, though. That's..."

Ootori just smiled at him, looking... sweet, almost. "You don't need to protect me from my family, Shishido-san. I know they tease me a lot, but... it's okay, you know?"

Shishido tried not to swallow his tongue, because there wasn't anything chiding about it--nothing that made him suspect that Ootori knew how he felt--but... he hadn't thought, not really, that Ootori knew he was trying to protect him.

"We've all got our duties, for holiday dinner," Ootori reached over to touch his shoulder, lightly, leaving just the tiniest trail of warmth where his fingers had brushed, "and I plan the table before, and work on the menu, keep the guests occupied, and help with the dishes afterwards. You can help, too, if you want, later..."

"Sure." The table was nicely done, he had to admit. It was set with candles placed in a wreath in the centre, and fancy tableware, and even a little sprig of holly propped against every little circular wooden napkin-holder with a name on it, with a pair of chopsticks tucked in next to the napkin. To his surprise, there was one for him, too--it might have been a little more roughly made than the others, and the wood was different, but it was smooth and sanded and carved with his name in graceful hiragana, and he blinked down at it, strangely warmed. The chopsticks, too, looked brand-new, but they had a tiny little carving on the base--the character for his first name. "Choutarou... what's this...?"

Ootori looked at it, and grinned, tentatively. "Papa makes the napkin-holders, and puts our names on our chopsticks--working with wood is his hobby," he smiled, and shrugged, a little, just the smallest motion of his shoulders. "I asked if he could make some for you, when you said you'd come visit. We want you to feel like you're home, when you're here. I hope it's okay that Papa put your first name on them..."

Shishido reached out to touch the wood--he could see it hadn't been weathered by time quite the way the rest of the ones around the table had been, but that they'd even bothered... his smile might have been just a little quivery, but just a little, when he chuckled, "Does this mean you'll finally call me just 'Ryou?'" he'd been trying to get Ootori to do that since the end of the last year, when they'd first decided to live together, without any success at all.

Ootori just smiled back, and patted his shoulder. "You're still my senpai, Shishido-san."

Shishido couldn't decide if Ootori had learned the stubbornness from him, or if Ootori had just always been stubborn and it had taken them living together for him to realise it. Still, though. It was nice--really nice--to see him with a backbone, because it always made his mood ugly to see anyone get picked on, and it had made his blood go wild and hot to see some of the second years bossing around a gawky, silver-haired freshman with a horribly inaccurate, but surprisingly fast, serve. Maybe Shishido had overreacted, a little, and Ootori hadn't actually needed rescuing, then, and he was just too nice to hold a grudge--but Shishido still grinned when he thought about how his roommate and partner was a Regular on the Hyotei team even though it was just his second year, while those by-now-senior bastards were still cooling their heels in the stands at every tournament.

"Ahhh, I hope you're hungry, Shishido-kun!"

The smells coming out from the now-open kitchen door were making his stomach want to swallow his backbone, and he swallowed as his mouth watered. "It smells great," he offered, as Ootori's father and sister came out of the kitchen with a teapot.

Then, before everyone sat down--it was a good thing he'd waited, maybe--he felt Ootori take his hand on one side, and Ootori's mom take his other. Now, he wasn't entirely sure, because he hadn't had a family meal in a long time and his family had never been all that normal to begin with, but most families did not hold hands around the table just because, did they?

Though he'd noticed that Ootori's family kind of seemed to like holding hands.

Ootori's mom was looking at him with a sweet little smile as she nodded. "Shishido-kun? Why don't you lead our prayer tonight?"

Oh. That's why the hand-holding.

Only after the brief instant of realisation did her words register. Prayer? Me?!

Ootori looked at him--at what must have been panic on his face, and there wasn't a thing on a tennis court that could make him flinch anymore, not after facing down a two hundred kph serve for nights on end, but the thought of embarrassing himself in front of Ootori's parents was making his vision a really creepy white around the edges--and squeezed his hand, gently, reassuringly. "Ah... Mama, Shishido-san doesn't..."

But he wanted to do this--it was just a small thing, right? To make up, in just a little way, for having been such an insensitive ass about Ootori's religion before... he cleared his throat, and squeezed back. Firmly. He could try, right? How hard could it be? And it was not at all cowardly how much he wanted to clutch onto Ootori's hand while he was doing this. "It's... it's okay, Choutarou. Eetoo... what do you normally... anou... pray about?"

"Well..." Ootori's father blinked, a little contemplatively. "Whatever we want to. Whatever... whatever you think is a blessing, I suppose."

Blessings. He'd spent so much of his life fighting things he could fight, and cursing at things he couldn't, but no-one had ever told him to think of things in terms of blessings before Ootori had come into his life. If he couldn't fight for it, then maybe it just wasn't worth having. Things just didn't come that easily to Shishido Ryou.

And that... that was just too bitter a thought for the expectant smiles around him, and a little squeeze from a partner who wouldn't tell him to do his best, because Ootori knew that Shishido always did.

So Shishido took a deep breath, squeezed back, and did his best.

"Um... I guess... I'm thankful for... for friends. And partners," he squeezed gently at Ootori's hand, and caught the edge of a smile. "And family, too." Because his mother had sounded so happy to hear from him, and he'd ended up telling her not just about going to Ootori's for Christmas--and she'd been delighted--but about his first senior semester, and the tennis team; being dropped from the Regulars, as painful as it was, and being brought back. And somehow, when she'd asked, a little wistfully, if he didn't have time, maybe, to come visit for a little while, after he came back from Ootori's... he'd replied, much to his own surprise, that he did have the time.

He looked around at the faces, at the hands tucked into his, and remembered that Ootori hadn't wanted him to be alone, not when he could be here, with them. It wasn't his family, but... for a moment, maybe, it didn't matter, because they were all smiling at him, and Choutarou was looking at him, watching him, his eyes very, very bright. "And for kindness," he finished, quietly. "And a very merry Christmas, with all of those things."

It was way too sappy for him, and he regretted it the moment he said it, because they were all going to laugh at him, and maybe he'd just screwed up, because for all the thinking that had taken, it had been very short--but then Ootori's mom just smiled, and they all said, "Amen."

"I did okay?" he whispered to Ootori, once the family had started chatting and serving what looked like really, really good food from the kitchen--much better than the takeout he'd just been planning to order for today--red tai snapper, and red rice, too, and sure enough, roast chicken, all kinds of celebration food that he hadn't had home-cooked in a very, very long time. How were they going to eat all of that...?

Ootori nodded, and Shishido blinked as under the table, Ootori took his hand and pressed it again. "You did great, Shishido-san."

He blinked again as Shishido's mom put a small plate in front of him--a grilled cheese sandwich, his favourite, but it seemed so odd against all the celebratory Japanese food--and winked, and he realised that her eyelashes were the same colour as Ootori's, almost. But how'd she known what he liked, unless...? "Um, thank you--"

"You have to eat up, you know, Shishido-kun," she chirruped, patting his head--not at all differently from how she patted Ootori's, kind of the 'good boy' rub on the top of the head that his parents had used to give him when he'd been little, so he didn't really mind. "You and Choutarou--when he tells me about how much you boys do at tennis practice, I wonder if you get enough to eat at night, and I worry. But he says that you make sure that he eats."

He assured her--more than a little bemused, because yes, he made sure that Ootori ate, even when his partner claimed not to be hungry after practice, but that was just what people did for their roommates, wasn't it?--that they both got enough to eat (though he felt it probably wasn't prudent to mention how much of it was take-out, when neither of them much felt like cooking anything or going all the way to the dining hall, since they lived off-campus.)

He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a big family dinner--or the last time he'd noticed the way candlelight reflected off someone's dark eyes, leaving a bronze spark there as his Choutarou smiled at him from across the table, somehow welcoming, and passed him the plate of fish, his hair almost gold in the reflected yellow light.

He really was too beautiful.

A cheerful piping at his elbow made him blink away from his contemplation of his partner as Meiko held up a plate piled high with little rounds. "Mochi!" she offered... well, as imperiously as an offer could be made, he thought. "I made them, so you have to have one."

"You sure it won't eat me first?" he teased--they actually looked good, little round, perfect daifuku that were just a little pink, but that was probably to match the season; he wasn't sure he'd have trusted them if they'd been green.

She giggled at him, and proffered the plate until he finally took one, and she moved on to Ootori, presenting one to each person at the table with great ceremony. "No fair teasing. And then you have to bite it and tell me what colour the inside is, okay?"

Okay. Well, that was something suspicious, if he'd ever heard it.

He slanted a half-alarmed look at Ootori, who was... grinning, as he murmured under his breath, "It's a tradition, with us. She makes them, every year, and the one who has the yellow-bean mochi rather than the red-bean mochi gets to open a present first, tomorrow."

Shishido breathed a tiny sigh of relief--before he realised just how many mochi were on that plate. "Uh, Choutarou... is there only one of those yellow things...?"

Ootori just gave him a sheepish little smile, and bit into the mochi he was holding. "It was easier when she was little, because then the yellow one would always look different, but... she's gotten very good at making them."

Shishido got it. Fast.

Well, it was probably a good thing he liked mochi, then...

Um. Yes. Minor explanations:
1. The Tennyo's Hagoromo is the Japanese version of a swan princess tale: the girl (tennyo) who came down from the sky and left her feathered cloak (hagoromo) by the riverside as she bathed; the hagoromo was stolen, and so she was unable to return to the sky, etc. etc.

2. The kissing in church thing: never having gone to mass anywhere but with other Filipinos, I don't know if anyone else actually does this, but yes: you say 'peace be with you' at a point in the mass and kiss everyone you know around you. Maybe it's just my family, but yes, men do kiss other men. This generally tends to only happen if they're related to each other (like cousins) or part of different generations (like uncle and nephew.) Of course, this might only be a Filipino thing, in which case... *sheepish*

3. Japanese festival food: red food (and thus, things like red rice and snapper) are considered lucky.

4. daifuku: mochi (rice cake) with red bean filling. Very yummy-- the kanji means "lots of happiness/luck," I think.

End of Part 2

On to Part 3

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