It was the last day before Christmas break, and the day was finally over. At least, the most laborious part of it. With hands buried deep inside his pockets, he huddled into the warmth of his coat as he began making his way home from school.

"Claus, wait up!"

Without slowing down, Claus looked over his shoulder to see who had called him. His hood was in the way to get a good look over his shoulder, but there was little point, as he knew who called for him. It was the only person who bothered to speak to him so often at school.

"Man, I thought the day would never end!" Ness panted so heavily from the running he did to catch up to the boy that he momentarily laughed at the clouds of visible hot air that whipped his face. "Hey, I desperately need a cig right now," he added. "You have one on you?"

Ness and Claus had been best friends for a long time—almost to the point of competitive rivals—and today would be the last day they'd see each other for a while. For the school, it would mean less bickering and obnoxious laughs on a daily basis, but between the two it was rather saddening. Ness would go up north to spend the holidays with his family at a large vacation house so luxurious just as he often described when telling his stories.

Claus hated Christmas break for precisely this reason. He would be stuck alone with his grandpa, at least until the other half of his family visited near Christmas Eve in just a week from today. Then, after only a couple of days, they would never see each other for a year, maybe two or more if they couldn't visit for whatever reason.

Claus was grateful for his grandpa, and he really loved him. But there was little to do in the house, and to have just nothing to do for two weeks was absolute torture. There were only two redeemable days in the two weeks of wintery hell: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but all there was were special dinners so filling, where he would eat like no tomorrow until possibly Thanksgiving if they had the money, or next Christmas break if his other half of family visited at all. And all there was was food—talks happened between Claus and his family, but he was often just compared to his brother and he was usually the loser. Whether his family visited or not, the season of holidays was never Claus's favorite time of the year.

Claus sighed as he reached into his pocket, twirling his fingers into a box until he discovered nothing. "All gone, but I should have more at home," Claus answered. "Walk me there?"

Ness smirked at the carrot-head, reminding him that there was only one answer to such a question. In the silent cold, they walked to the small house where Claus and his grandfather resided in. As they walked towards the door, Ness noticed the once vivid garden that Claus's grandpa loved working on was barren and slathered with snow. Of course, this was expected with the current weather, but he always felt so sympathetic with the loss of beauty in Claus's residence especially at this time of year. He knew much about Claus's past—from a boy who lost a lot and chose to never really confide such information with just anyone—and pitied his friend with a degree of concern.

Things hadn't been the same for Claus since his mother passed away when he was young. He chose to sacrifice his peaceful country life and give the rest of it to his father and twin brother, as he knew it was hard for just his father to support the both of them. Coming to a less sophisticated part of the world was not so bad—standard of living was a little easier, but it came with drastic changes to his social life. For one, peer pressure seemed to be an enforced idea in the city life, and Claus easily gave into it. It was how he built his habit of smoking from the age of fourteen, and kept it ongoing for almost four years now.

As Claus pushed the door open, he spotted the bedroom door at the other side of the house closed. It was his grandpa's room, and when it was closed, it meant he was sleeping, and wished to stay that way for a long while. Claus respected his space, in fact, it gave him opportunity to do whatever he wanted without his grandpa pestering him.

"Grab a drink if you want," Claus told Ness as he closed the door. "I have to get out of these fucking clothes." He left Ness standing in the living room while he quickly went to his bedroom to change. He left the door to his room open so they could talk while Ness fetched for some drinks.

"When are you leaving?" Claus asked while Ness looked into the refrigerator like it was his own home.

"My mom wants to be there by eight, so I guess we'll be leaving at… six, or something. Why?"

Claus jumped out of his room, the noise making Ness turn around. He saw that the boy had a comfortable shirt on, but left himself in his boxers.

"The hell? That's three hours from now!" Claus exclaimed.

Ness looked to the nearest clock hanging on the wall. "A little less than that, actually."

Claus sighed, slapping the door to his room a little wider. "Whatever," he uttered, and walked back in. In his room again, he dug into his messy closet and yanked out the cleanest sweatpants he could find. Standing with his back to the door, just a little bent over, he hopped on one leg whilst struggling to put them on, realizing that he had grabbed a size too large for him. When he heard Ness's footsteps approaching, he became startled and fell to the ground in a pile of his clothes, almost hitting his head against the wooden footboard of his bed.

Ness hurried to his side to see if everything was okay, and saw the fallen state Claus was in. He put the two cans of soda down on the nearby counter, and helped the boy try and sit up, placing his hands on Claus's back and front torso. Though, Ness's hand accidentally brushed over one of the sensitive parts of Claus's chest, and something inside both of them fluttered, and a distinctive whimper escaped from the carrot-headed boy. Ness quickly pulled Claus up, and jumped on the bed, far away from him.

Claus tried to mask the situation like nothing happened by resuming to put on his baggy sweatpants, but they were both too aware of how awkward the atmosphere was going to become. To prevent it from becoming any more embarrassing, Ness broke the silence as best as he could.

"So, when was the last time you got lucky with a girl?" he blatantly uttered.

"Fuck you, Ness," Claus scowled. "You know as well as I do that I haven't kissed anyone…yet. And I'm sure you haven't either." He added this with a smirk on his face.

"…Wanna try?"

With a quick turn of his head, Claus looked at Ness with eyes wide from shock. He started biting on his bottom lip, a nervous habit he didn't seem to be able to get rid of just like his smoking addiction. The sweatpants he was still trying to put on fell from his hands. Seconds flew past him as he stood there staring at his friend, until he realized his sweatpants had dropped and his boxers were exposed again.

Promptly, he turned away from Ness and pulled up his sweatpants for one last time, tying them tight so that they wouldn't spontaneously fall again. It had never been weird to change in front of Ness before. But then again, Ness had never asked before if he wanted to kiss him. He swallowed hard again before he turned back to face Ness.

"Seriously?" he finally returned to Ness's inquiry, squinting at him interestingly.

"Well," Ness softly mumbled, nervously fumbling in the hood of his jacket. Then, with a sudden rush of boldness, he added, "I just fucking turned eighteen, and I haven't even kissed anyone. That's pretty embarrassing already, so we might as well practice on each other. Not like we don't already know all the embarrassing stuff about each other already, right? We'll just pretend we're kissing some chick." His hesitation failed to impress Claus, but he continued, "Don't think it'll be any different, right?"

Claus blinked at Ness as he processed the reasoning, and slowly nodded. "I guess not," he muttered. "How…are we gonna do this?"

He climbed onto the bed and shuffled on his knees until he was closer to Ness, facing him. Still nervous, he wiped his trembling hands on his thighs. Ness went to sit on his knees too, and shifted a bit so they were sitting right next to each other, knees almost touching.

They sat like that for what felt like ages, just continuing to stare at each other. Then, Claus took a shaky breath, let his eyes fall shut, and slowly closed the gap between their faces, lightly touching his lips to Ness's.

"Soft," he weakly whispered to himself. Leaning his forehead against his friend's and his eyes still closed, he licked his lips, hoping Ness wasn't watching how cautious he looked. Then he jerked himself backwards and opened his eyes, looking somewhat flustered.

"You taste… fruity?" Claus added in a low mumble, just staring straight ahead without realizing Ness was looking back at him.

Ness reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a cylindrical object. "Chapstick," he answered. "Green-apple flavor. That's probably why."

"Fuck, I said that out loud?" Claus uttered, biting his lip again while a blush burned on his cheeks.

"You should use some too," Ness suggested, smiling. "Your lips must feel so rough from you biting them all the time."

An awkward silence descended onto them, neither of them knowing what to do or say next. Claus remembered that he saw the soda cans sitting on his counter, and jumped off the bed to retrieve them. He opened both and shared one with his friend, the fizzy sounds of carbonation breaking through the air as neither continued to say anything.

With both sodas half-finished, Ness finally asked for the cigarette he wanted earlier. Claus retrieved a fresh box from a drawer, and they headed outside. It was still very cold, so Claus retrieved a nearby fire basket occupied with finely chopped wood that his grandpa made, and lit it up. The two boys sat down on the little bench beside the snow-covered pavement, laying the basket in front of them.

They sat in silence for a while, but the calming effect their cigarettes whiffed away the dregs of awkwardness that lasted between them, and then they resumed chattering just like old friends.

Light snow began floating down from the sky. The snowflakes were so fragile that they failed to notice the change of weather, as the boys were easily enveloped in their conversation. They recalled old memories, suggested new ideas, and laughed together as if nothing had ever happened. Eventually they shifted into talking about their plans for the next two weeks, but nothing was new. They both knew each other's plans from years before, and the pattern became obvious their third year of friendship together. Ness would enjoy a merry two weeks of food, games, and presents with his family, while Claus would either sulk at home doing nothing, wander around the city in hopes of looking for something entertaining, or sluggishly work an after-holiday job for pocket money. Claus leaned forward and poked at the fire basket as he had few words to say about the topic.

"So…" Ness suddenly spoke, "…do you want to practice kissing again?"

"Fuck no," Claus immediately responded, quickly standing up and stepping away to hide his cold red cheeks. "Practice on this," he added as he grabbed a handful of snow and slapped it on Ness's face.

Ness stood up with a furious smirk. "Why you little bitch," he hissed.

Ness grabbed a handful of snow and ran after Claus, chasing each other around the lifeless garden, laughing like the fools they were. Snowballs were being thrown back and forth now, with Ness's pitches striking home more often than the other boy.

Though, Claus was more agile of the two, and feinted a snowball before he tackled the slightly taller boy. Ness crashed into the snow, and Claus landed on top of him. The light pain from the tackle and crash quickly dwindled, but their gazes crossed and their smoky breaths mingled with each other. Time suddenly slowed between them, and they could finally feel each petite snowflake chilling their skin.

Ness's mouth fell open slightly, staring at his friend. Before he let out a word, he felt Claus's lips press onto his. He froze for a moment, but defrosted from the warmth of lips pressing against him, and so Ness pressed back a bit harder. He then poked his tongue out and pushed its tip against Claus's lips. A shiver ran through Claus's body and a soft sound escaped his mouth, though it wasn't from the cold, wet snow seeping through his shirt. The sound of hinted pleasure from urged Ness to start nibbling softly on Claus's opened mouth—first the bottom lip, then the upper lip, tenderly caring for the roughened skin that Claus had been biting on all this time. It was as rugged as broken ice, and once bitten, melted into delight as if gently kissed. And as they looked at each other one more time, they began kissing each other eagerly.

Their slippery kisses ended as soon as time resumed to a normal speed. Their heavy breaths were more perceptible through the winter air, and each hard sigh reminded them how much had just happened. This time they couldn't forget so easily, but they didn't want to.

"Fuck, what are we doing, Ness?" Claus gasped out in the icy air.

"I don't know, Claus." Ness weakly chuckled. "I don't fucking know."

Claus's eyes closed for a moment, and then he bit his lip once more, albeit lightly enough to reassure himself. Then he looked back into Ness's eyes. "Can we keep doing it, though?"

Ness licked his lips and smiled. "I'd like that, but…" he was starting to feel the snow soak through his clothes too, and the chill made him shudder. "…How about we go inside?"

Claus smirked back. "Good idea."

But before they could think about how they should get up, their lips met once more, only to never split apart for a long while.