Title: Home for Christmas
Author: LetTheWordsFlow/AkaYuki2106
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Romano/Spain with mentions of Germany/Italy and Japan.
Summary: I stayed up to hear your voice.
Warnings: Swearing and short fluff/sadness
Info: Merry Christmas, even if it's not really Xmas here anymore. This fanfiction is also for a contest on dA, and was inspired by the video of the little girl who asked Santa for her dad to come home for Christmas.

Damn tradition. Damn the call inviting him to his brother's house. Damn his brother's boyfriend and all their lovey-dovey-ness and how happy they are. Damn his brother's awkward friend who spent an hour in his room calling his boyfriend. Damn timezones. Damn it all.

Damn the fact that he was seriously contemplating spending Christmas all by himself in his apartment zoned out in front of the TV, phone in hand, before said phone rang. Damn the part of himself that jumped at the sound of Christmas with an actual person rather than a disembodied voice. Damn the part of him that remembered that Ludwig would be there and so probably would be Kiku and he'd probably keep everyone awake by staying up. Damn it all.

Let's be blunt. Damn the part of him that had to stay up to hear his voice.

When your boyfriend works half the world away and is never home for Christmas, it more or less sucks.

Christmas eve is fun and Feliciano's food is amazing as usual and he comforts himself with food and tells himself that he won't cry at all, not even a tiny tear, when he hears Antonio apologising for not being home this year as well, and when everyone is stuffed, his brother drags him into playing games and even though he knows that Ludwig doesn't like him and Kiku doesn't know him he lets himself smile just a bit and when he has to run to the bathroom quickly on pretext of having eaten too much and grip the sink hard and stare at the mirror trying not to cry, everyone leaves him alone.

Eventually they all slink off to bed, tired and happy and (on Feliciano's part) looking at the presents with glee, and he is left, alone, staring at the dying fire and feeling the phone sit heavy in his hands. He glances at the clock as it grows later and later and their normal time for a call approaches, arrives, and passes. I guess he's working late again tonight.

One am. 7 pm for him. He's normally home by now. 2 am, 8 pm for him. Where is he? 3 am, 9 pm. Is he out tonight? 4 am….and he's gone, tears tracking down his face, tears he would steadfastly deny the next morning. He hasn't seen Antonio in god knows how long, and neither of them have the money to fly to each other regularly, so phone calls and Skype calls are their only interaction and sometimes they're tired and sometimes he has early shifts and some mornings the three am text from him saying 'I'm sorry I missed you last night, I love you' just doesn't cut it and goddamn he misses Antonio.

That bastard who picked him up, who looked at him and said 'Yes, I love you, imperfections and all', who set him on the right path and kept him there, who dealt with everyone who hurt him and healed him every time. The bastard who he loved unconditionally and spent so long denying he did because fuck knows what the world would do if they knew he loved his best male friend. The bastard who found his dream job and had to move halfway across the world and left him behind.

He wakes to someone walking through the room. His first thought is oh fuck I fell asleep on the coach and the second is fuck it's uncomfortable. He opens his eyes, preparing to apologise to Feliciano for falling asleep on his couch and then-

.

.

.

.

.

Blink.

Open his eyes again.

And then he doesn't care who's watching, he doesn't care what anyone thinks, he's across the room in half a second.

And if Antonio falls over and he falls on him and they both bang their head a bit and he can just feel Feliciano wondering whether to laugh or cry, he doesn't care.

Because it's 8 am and he's had 5 hours sleep but the day is here and he has the most amazing present in his arms and under his body and he's crying again and everyone can see and Antonio is home for Christmas.

My Christmas was pretty good, but the last hour has been shit, but I'm going to try and be happy again. How was yours?