Garou needs some love.
It wasn't that Garou disliked Christmas or anything like that. All those adorned trees, lights on every single building, fat guys in red clothes and cheery people, he didn't really care. It wasn't like he was celebrating Christmas anyway.
It could've been a bit warmer, though. Recently temperatures dropped very low, and even if it wasn't snowing (yet, it surely would soon), the blonde was already freezing his ass off in his loose, tattered clothes. They were made to make his fighting easier, not to protect him from cold.
He was neutral towards Christmas, but he sure as hell hated winter. Not to mention he was hungry.
And the more he wandered through cheerful and colorful city, the more his irritation grew. By the time he was really considering wrecking havoc in that big shopping mall, someone suddenly threw something warm over him. Of course, it startled Garou, but upon closer examination it turned out to be long, fur-trimmed, gray coat. Apparently someone was wearing it seconds before, because it was warm and smelled nice, like vanilla and honey.
"Oh Garou, what do I do with you?" said a familiar voice, and Garou spun around imiedately, facing a woman standing before him. She was quite a bit taller than him (but he knew she wore high heels again, she always did, and originally she was his height), had long, brown hair and warm, brown eyes. And of course, there was that blue-skinned, pink-haired cyclops with her, as always.
Sakura and Boros.
"What do you want?" Garou huffed, instinctively wrapping himself tighter with the coat, yearning for warmth. Sakura just sighed.
"You tell me; what can someone be doing in a shopping mall during Christmas?" she asked, and Garou felt like absolute idiot. "But honestly, we were looking for you."
"Why would you be?" boy hissed.
"Because, just as predicted, you were wandering around, freezing your ass of and perhaps even starving" Boros huffed, stomping in one place to warm himself up a bit. "There has to be something to it, if even I decided to show a bit of good will and go looking for you."
"You didn't need to" Garou huffed, now feeling embarrassed. Sakura (and Boros) lived both in the suburbs of D-City, in the Mini-villa district, as he used to call it. To make things even funnier, between her home and where they were now laid whole D-City and half of G-city they were in now. That would've meant they were looking for him for a long time. "How'd you found me?" he asked.
"I've made a charm that more-less showed us the area you should be in" Sakura shrugged, and, absolutely ignoring Garou trying to pry away from her and almost yelping, threw her arm around him. As soon as he felt her warmth, though, boy stopped trashing, almost leaning into the half-hug. She smelled like honey and vanilla. "So, how about we go and but you some more season-accurate clothing?"
"Whatever, really" Garou muttered under his breath, his face red, and Boros only laughed.
"I don't know what about you, but I feel like eating some trash food" alien admitted, and Garou couldn't agree more.
~•(x)•~
Dressed in black, woolen sweater with two reindeers hafted on, some fine pale jeans and warm boots, holding cup of hot chocolate in his hands, Garou finally felt like living again. Starbucks chocolate was amazing (and Sakura just might've been a bit obsessed with Starbucks as well), and it was warming him from inside. Garou actually started to think it's nice, until…
"Human Monster Garou!" someone yelled just as they were about to leave the café, and Garou recognized the man surrounded by squealing idiotic teens as Sweet Mask. Swet Mask who instantly charged at him, and Garou, in quite weakened state, had too long reaction time, so all he could was close his eyes and prepare for the hit.
The hit that never came.
Garou opened his eyes slowly, uncertain, only to see Sweet Mask's hand locked in iron grip of very, very angry-looking Sakura. Okay, this day was going to end nice.
"Who the fuck even are you?" woman growled, rather quiet at first. "AND HOW DARE YOU TO RAISE A HAND AT MY BOY?!"
"Uh-oh, angry mama bear mode activated" Boros snorted, rolling his eye, and Garou only sighed in answer, enjoying the show. Sakura brought Sweet Mask to his knees at an instant, bending his hand, and perhaps even breaking it, for the ugly crunch was well-heard, and then made him apologize. Which, surprisingly, he did (after she threatened to rip all his hair off).
"You overreacted…" Garou started, but before he could say anything else, Sakura caught him in tight embrace, slowly petting his head.
"How dare they, those dumb evil heroes, jump at my poor boy like that" she whined, and blonde only sighed, glaring at Boros who had hard time keeping himself from laughing.
"I'm not your boy, Sakura" Garou muttered, clearly embarrassed.
"You are" she said. "You're adopted."
"SINCE WHEN?!"
"Since now" she shrugged, finally letting him go.
"Maybe we should move. We're attracting quite some attention" Boros noticed, nodding at gathering crowd, although, thankfully, they were much more interested in beaten Sweet Mask. It's not every day to see your 'favorite' top A-Class hero crushed so easily after all, isn't it?
"Yeah, we're here for some time and all we did so far was getting Garou some clothes" Sakura sighed, scratching back of her neck. "You prefer go for Christmas decorations, groceries or miscellaneous stuff first?" she asked.
"I'd go for decorations first" Boros admitted.
"I think it's obvious to go for the misc stuff last?" Garou admitted, and woman smiled, grabbing one hand of each man and dragging them after her.
"Well, it's not every day you do big family shopping, is it?" she giggled.
~•(x)•~
It was not nearly as bad as Garou anticipated it would be, the whole shopping tour. It was actually quite pleasant, and handled swiftly, and all those bad things he heard of women shopping, at least in this case, turned out just meaningless blabbering. Sakura was actually much more decided than what he anticipated her to be (forgive that argue with Boros whether should they buy yellow on red lights for the tree, ended with Garou telling them to buy both).
What annoyed him, and not only him, was that Boros was gathering some unwanted affection, and some people ended up taking photos of him without his permission and… Not much to say, Sakura made those phones explode in their hands.
Overprotective Witch is overprotective, that much was commonly known.
Garou also remembered that not much than two weeks ago he would react a bit panicked, and even aggressively when she hugged him, doing anything to pry her off, and now… Not it was okay. Like, totally okay, and even maybe nice.
He thought he is really hopeless case, claiming to be a villain but still yearning for the touch.
He shouldn't.
He didn't care, he decided, as he allowed himself to hug Sakura back. She was a Witch, after all, so he figured that Witches are just weird. Or, at least, that's how he kept explaining it to himself.
Because it was impossible for him to actually grow attached her... Was it?
~•(x)•~
Boros was cooking. Boros was always cooking. Garou had visited Sakura's house many times on many occasions already, and honestly, he couldn't recall one single time she was the one in the kitchen. It's not that he was complaining or anything, because the purple alien cooked really good, but he was sort of surprised that someone so strong could be so easily degraded to mere housewife. Or househusband on that matter.
But on the other hand, Sakura was a Witch. A goddamn strong one, to that, easily overpowering both him and Boros. Alien lord would sometimes blabber in awe on how she could go par with Saitama, as he's apparently seen it, and Garou had actually hard time doubting it.
"Hey, Garou?" Sakura asked, catching his attention.
"What?" boy hissed in quite gruff manner, trying his best to not to look at her.
"Will you stay at least until Christmas?" she asks, and this is exactly the kind of question he feared the most. Then, comes realization; he doesn't have the reason to go, even if nothing holds him there.
Or, so he claims. And he stays.
~•(x)•~
Christmas came before he noticed, as time passed him by in calm atmosphere and warm house where he could feel safe and relax and people not only didn't look down on him, but also cared for him. As much as he hated to admit it (and would never do it aloud) he really enjoyed the atmosphere and being cared for. He would still react angrily towards Sakura expressing affection so openly, but it was just for show now, so he could keep up his lone wolf attitude.
Boros, on the other hand, that was interesting case. Garou could feel that he completely accepted Sakura's decision and actually liked him, but he was not nearly as clingy as the witch was. He was, though, the one to drag him outside the most, be it shopping for some various things, or just simple walk to move their lazy asses from time to time.
Boros was also the one to engage snowball fights once snow finally fell down, but how hard wouldn't they fight, even together, Sakura was just too tough opponent to fight. It got even worse when she invited neighborhood kids to help her.
He liked spending time with both of them, and even if he felt their (Sakura's) overwhelming it actually made him relax in assurance of safety than tense awaiting for the blow.
But the Christmas came, and for once Sakura was clingier towards Boros than towards him, dragging the alien under mistletoe whenever she saw one, especially when they were in public. Poor Cyclops usually had tendency to get embarrassed, but it was Sakura and holy hell, that witch was possessive. She actually growled at one girl trying to approach Boros.
When she asked Garou how the things were going between him and Metal Bat, he was caught absolutely off-guard. Truth to be told he was laying low with this all hero hunting of his, so he had much more time, and he kept going out almost daily to hang out with that guy. And he might or might not have a thing for him, and Sakura, of course, knew it.
Sometimes he thought that she knows everything, especially when it came to feelings.
~•(x)•~
They didn't really celebrate Christmas Eve like it should be done, but it was mainly because Sakura respected the great rifts that were between them on some things. For both Christmas and the Eve she just wanted to make it an unforgettable experience, and for her it always was all about spending time together with her family.
Other thing she considered Boros and Garou her family.
The official dinner came first. Preparing it, though, it was magic. It was absolutely first time he saw Sakura in kitchen and cooking, but on the other hand he himself was assigned to help as well. And it was quite fun.
(A fact he learned; Sakura is afraid of fish, especially dead fish, and Boros, apparently knowing it, bought alive carp. It ended with her running out of the kitchen calling him names.)
And after the dinner it traditionally came to gifts.
He knew Boros liked warmth, so he bought him some good quality, long, woolen scarf. Sakura, predictably, bought him some damn fancy earrings.
For Sakura Boros got some fancy perfume bottle and all-meaning wink that made her blush a little and giggle, although it was Garou on who she pounced after receiving gift from him. He gave her plain white cup with 'Best Mom in the World' engraved on.
But when Garou got medium-sized package on before him, he suddenly got nervous. He had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to expect. All he knew that it was what Boros got him. But you live only once, so he ripped decorative paper off-
And froze in place.
That alien bastard is fucking insane, Garou thought.
Because he got him goddamn Samsung Galaxy S6, not only the ridiculously expensive, but also one of best models of phones that were around. And all Garou could was to gape in awe.
"Sakura often kept complaining on how she doesn't have contact with you when you're out" Boros explained. "So I decided to fix the problem."
Garou only nodded, unpacking the phone as if it was most precious thing ever. That moment, he thought nothing would surprise him today anymore.
When he got small packet from Sakura, however, he knew he was wrong.
There were keys inside it. Keys to her house.
"Oh, have that, too" Sakura said, handing black leash patterned with white skulls to the boy.
"It's a leash" Garou said as if he never saw one.
"Yeah, for the keys" woman said with warm smile. "So you'll always return home."
Garou never felt so wanted before.