Christmas Tree
"Lovi~!"
"Shut the hell up, you bastard!" hissed Lovino. He pulled the Spaniard by the collar shirt took him away from the windows. They strolled together (more like Lovino pulling his boyfriend angrily) on the sidewalks where everywhere was celebrating Christmas.
There were men in Santa Clause outfits ringing their bells, laughing the 'ho-ho-ho!' laughter as children big and small all gathered around the town square to visit the impersonating Santas. Lovino hated the fact that, despite it being a wonderful holiday, he had to spend it with Antonio who said he was going to go with Francis and Gilbert when he and Lovino were meant to celebrate tonight together. However, the bar they were going to with their boyfriends was closed and they awkwardly left their separate ways.
"Lovi, I want to go and visit the Santa Clauses!" Antonio said, pointing at one Santa who was giving out presents to the crowd of youngsters cheering for his attention.
"We're going home," Lovino snapped, "it's getting late and we've been here for hours. And out of nowhere, the bar is closed so we can't drink!"
"You know, we don't have to drink alcohol to enjoy Christmas. There is so much we can do! It's about—"
"If you even go effing talking about the meaning of Christmas," said Lovino threateningly, "I will personally kick your butt."
"Are you using nice words today?" Antonio asked, intrigued with a smile.
Lovino pouted in dismissal of Antonio who felt his collar being released by the angered Italian and passed a move to hold his hand. As much as Lovino wanted to slap Antonio's hand away, he allowed the gesture for once. Above the skies from where Lovino gazed up, avoiding Antonio's perplexing smiley face he saw portions of small but delicate snowflakes drifting around the air like dancing leaves of what was before Autumn turning into Winter. It was so long ago when Autumn came, and now the Winter holidays were taking a new front of adventure to the New Year. As Antonio intertwined their fingers together in their hand-holding fashion Lovino noticed around him the cheerful faces of those who were enjoying their Christmas.
"Lovi, can we go to town square?" asked Antonio happily.
"Why do you wanna go there?"
"There's something really interesting happening over there," he explained, his hand holding him tightly in a protective way. "And I really would like to go there if we can."
It gave Lovino some thought on what mystifying idea Antonio had stored for. He remembered the good ol' days where Antonio would always have this idea of surprising Lovino who never knew he could come up with and at times they were wonderful surprises. But then there was that one time when Antonio took him bull fighting, and Lovino made him swear never to remind him of that. Let alone never taking him to one again.
"Fine, we can go," Lovino sighed tiredly. "But I swear, if it's a waste of time-"
"It's not," he said, pulling him in a fast pace. "I promise you, it'll be great!"
Lovino rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's cute childlike personality and took charge of leading the way to Town Square. Snow made their footsteps crunch with every step they took as the glowing lights of the lampposts were ignited in a soft, yellow golden light which made the atmosphere more bewitching and pulchritudinous. The shops which didn't closed early were still selling their products for more profit, but Lovino and Antonio ignored the frenzy of shoppers trying to get last minutes gifts for loved ones.
XxXxXxX
"Yay, we made it on time!" cheered Antonio enthusiastically.
The Town Square, to Lovino's amazement, was decked out fabulously with a large tree in the middle of the park all decorated beautifully as if to announce itself as the most magnificent tree out of all the other decorative trees standings by the sides. Few residents, some they knew from work and others were just new faces, were either surrounded by the alluring tree or taking strolls at Town Square—and all of them had expressions of happiness plastered on their faces. Drifts of snowflakes all white and gentle floated above the skies where they glided gracefully to Earth. All looked magical and beautiful.
Lovino and Antonio walked toward the middle tree and began raveling it in its majestic physic. "Hey, you know, we wrote our wishes and hid it on that tree!"
"Don't remind me, I know it already," said Lovino bittersweet-ly. How could he forget that stupid wish he made on it days ago?
Before this tree was beautiful, it was regarded by Lovino a creepy tree brought from the forest out of the country. He even remembered how Antonio pestered him constantly to write a message to the tree and saying how the tree could grant their wishes if they tied it up on the branches.
"Do you think our wishes will come true if the clock strikes twelve?"
Lovino looked at his wrist watch and saw it was ten minutes until midnight. "I don't really care; it's just a trick everyone does to think their wishes could come true. We should go home now."
Lovino released Antonio's hand and was just about to leave when his boyfriend suddenly grabbed hold of his hand and got him to stay put. "We can't! Not yet, anyway! J-just give it a few more minutes-"
"Why the hell do I wanna stay here?"
"B-because...I have a present for you under the tree!"
Not believing him, Lovino raised a suspicious eyebrow at him and Antonio only insisted repeatedly how he was telling the truth about the present. Just to see if he was really telling the truth, he went over to the tree, got down on his knees and started to investigate. Lovino looked around the tree and wondered if he was making a fool of himself as Antonio nervously stared at his wrist watch.
"Are you sure it's around here?" shouted Lovino irritated-ly.
"I'm really sure it is!" said Antonio, still looking at his watch worryingly. Just two more minutes...
Lovino growled under his breath and got out from the corner of the tree and stood up, dusting his pants while cursing unkind curses and made his way to leave.
"Ah, Lovi, where are you going?"
"I'm leaving," Lovino hissed. "And don't even expect the door to be open if you come. You just wasted my time and-"
Antonio gasped, "It's time!" Was he even listening to Lovino when he was shouting at him?
He looked up with eyes full of hope and shyness when Antonio and Lovino looked at the tree to see it suddenly brimming with colorful lights that filled the park with gasps of awe and adoring sighs. Beautifully standing tall and proud was this tree alone, as the sides of the lined up trees began to flaming themselves with admirable lights that shone along like the stars from above, only in the form of being seen up close and personal.
Antonio glanced shyly at Lovino who was captivated by the largest one's beauty when he came close to his side, taking his hand once more and saying what he meant to say all these years...
"Lovino," he said, his boyfriend turning to him to look at him in the eyes. "I've been meaning to tell you these things since the moment we started dating. I know this might be clichéd and all, but I the reason why I volunteered to help decorate the tree was so we could see it together. Now that we see it, I think it's time you paid closer attention to the star above us..." He pointed up to the golden star which Lovino gasped when he saw it.
The golden star that shone brighter than any diamond in the entire world had red engravings on them which said: 'Will you marry me' and had a picture of a tomato by the end.
Lovino's eyes were wide with shock but deep down he felt the immediate response of tears forming and dripping down his dried, rosy red cheeks. Like always, Antonio became worried and was stammering insanely because of his worrisome protection of his boyfriend.
"Lovi, I'm sorry if you didn't like it! I-I really thought maybe-"
"Of course!" Lovino dissolved into tears of happiness. He oddly laughed and was trying to rub the tears away.
"Huh?" Antonio looked baffled.
Lovino was choking tears and hiccupped cutely. "I-I-hic-said of course, bastard! I want to marry you!" Right away he head-butted his head at Antonio's chest (thankfully not resulting any injuries, for Antonio's sake) and remained like that until Antonio hugged him with the warmest smile he had.
As the two walked home, Lovino was asking questions as he dried his tears with his long sleeved jacket.
"So how long have you been planning this?" Lovino asked curiously.
"About...a year..." said Antonio timidly.
"A freaking year? For eff's sake, why did you take forever?"
"Because I wanted to make it memorable!" Antonio cried.
"Well, next time when we die, make sure to do it the right way! I'm not excited on getting married right away, I just want a simple 'marry me'."
"I'll do my best when we met, then," said Antonio. "And I'll be sure to purpose to you a thousand years. Like we're doing right now."
On the way home, both held hands confidently as they enjoyed their conversations to themselves quietly.