This was a Secret Santa gift for tumblr user Manalookie. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. ^.^ As always, I am happy to receive constructive criticism and comments so that I can make my writing better. My beta was the ever talented, Mrs. Stockholm. I could never have written this without her.
Arthur had been standing in front of Kiku's door for a few minutes just trying to figure out what he was going to say when the Japanese man opened the door. He didn't want to come across as too eager or excited, but he could hardly say that he wasn't excited. Perhaps he was just overthinking this. He did have the tendency to do that.
"Hello?" A quiet voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Ah, Kiku!" he exclaimed, forgetting for a moment that he had knocked on the door just seconds before. After awkwardly trying to gather his bearings, he held out a bouquet of red and white roses that he had picked out for this very occasion.
"Roses? These are for me?" Kiku asked. As he slowly reached over to grab the bundle, a slight blush formed on his otherwise calm face.
"Er, yes. I was hoping that you would join me tonight," Arthur said rubbing the back of his head with a bit of a laugh. "That is if you don't have any other plans already."
It looked as if the other man was going to reject and Arthur was ready to laugh it off like he normally did when things such as that happed. He was used to being rejected and it hardly even phased him anymore. Even when it came to things that he had been looking forward to for days. It was absolutely no problem whatsoever.
"Alright," Kiku said with a gentle smile.
"Right. I-" he started before realizing what had actually been said. "Wait, what? Really? Er, I mean, of course." He couldn't help but smile. "The only thing is, we have to leave now or we might not make it in time." As he added the last part, his smile faded a little but it was clear that he was still excited.
"That's fine. Let me put these in water and go grab my coat," Kiku responded before opening the door a little more, allowing Arthur to come inside. It was only a short wait before they were on their way.
After a few minutes of walking silently along the snow dusted street, Kiku looked over at Arthur. "Where are we going?"
"Well, It's a surprise," Arthur said with a slight laugh. "I can't tell you, yet." He hoped that answer would suffice, but he knew that it would be far better if he didn't spoil things ahead of time.
The other man simply smiled gently and nodded. "Ok. I understand."
"It's not much farther, so you won't have to wait too long. I think it will be well worth the wait," he added just in case.
This time Kiku laughed a little before responding. "You seem rather excited about this."
"I'm not that excited," Arthur said looking away awkwardly. "I just wanted to see this with you. Just wait, alright?" With that their conversation ended, but the air between them was much lighter.
Just as he had promised, it had only taken a short time to arrive at their destination. It was a park completely decorated with lights for Christmas. There were quite a few people, but that was too be expected as it was Christmas Eve. He just hoped that it wouldn't bother Kiku too much. Looking over at him, however, told Arthur that he was quite happy.
"So, um, what do you think," Arthur said. "I know that you don't really celebrate Christmas, but I thought you might like this."
For a moment, he didn't say anything but instead just stood and stared. When he did finally speak it was almost too quiet to hear. "It's beautiful."
Arthur smiled but didn't ruin the moment by saying anything more. Instead, he offered his hand to Kiku before leading him down one of the many paths. He had gone to see the lights every year, but they had never been quite as lovely as they were that night. Even the now gently falling snow seemed to add to the perfectness of the atmosphere.
They walked for some time just enjoying the sights and the calm that seemed to envelope the park. The other visitors faded away as Arthur began to tell stories of the many times he had come to see this place with his family and Kiku listened with great care as he always did. Any signs of nervousness that had previously plagued the Englishman were gone.
As they reached the other end of the path, Arthur stopped. "There is one more thing that I had planned for the night. If you're up for it, that is."
"Hm? What is it?" Kiku asked looking over at him curiously.
"Well, my family always ended the night with a carriage ride," he responded before motioning over to a couple of horse drawn carriages that were waiting for riders. "It's something that they only offer on Christmas Eve."
"That sounds wonderful," Kiku said. "I've never ridden on one of those before."
With that, Arthur led the way to one of the carriages. He helped Kiku up before climbing in next to him and paying the driver. As the driver began to move Kiku leaned his head on Arthur's shoulder before speaking again. "I'm glad that you brought me here. Thank you."
Arthur didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. His soft smile and warm cheeks said it all.