Happy Holidays, everyone!

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Prompt: Yarn (by DeAlice)

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"I didn't know you knitted. Knit? Did knitting? What's the verb of knitting?" Taichi asked from his place, lying over the arm of the couch, observing his boyfriend knit.

"Shut up, I don't know," Yamato replied from the armchair and continued his knitting.

"You should know; you're the one doing it."

"Knowing how doesn't mean I know what it's called. Or how it's conjugated. Or whatever."

Taichi's face took on a contemplative expression before he shoved off the couch and marched to the TV stand. He flopped down in front of it and pulled out a thick book from one of the shelves.

"Are you seriously looking it up?" Yamato asked, knitting needles pausing and settling on his lap.

"Yes."

"… Fair enough." Yamato resumed his knitting whilst Taichi flicked through the dictionary.

"This here says that the past tense and past participle are both 'knitted,' so I suppose my first question was right." The dictionary snapped shut and returned to its place on the small shelf.

"So was your question in the past tense or the past participle?"

"Shut up. What are you making, anyway?" Taichi got up, dusted himself off, and returned to the couch. "It looks like a tube scarf. For a really skinny neck. Or for the wrist."

"It's going to be a sock. For shoving in your mouth."

"Unpleasant."

"Then shut up."

"Why a sock?"

Yamato let his hand and knitting drop to his lap. "Obviously I'm making two, dumbass."

Taichi rolled his eyes. "Duh, but why socksss?"

"Because they're your Christmas gift."

Taichi stared, then bit his lip. "Um… Did I ask for socks?"

"No, but you were complaining that your toes get cold after soccer practice, so I thought I'd make you woollen socks to keep your toes warm. Appreciate it."

"Oh, I do."

"Good."

"Good. And thanks."

Yamato continued his knitting and Taichi watched, soothed by the rhythmic movements of the needles.

"Where'd you learn, anyway?"

"Knitting?" Yamato didn't look up from the stitches. "It was kind of an accident, really."

"How do you 'accidentally' learn to knit?"

Since there was no reply, Taichi rolled his eyes and hopped off the couch. "Fine. I think I'll accidentally learn to play your bass." He started tiptoeing towards Yamato's room.

"You touch my bass and you can kiss your socks and your life goodbye," Yamato said, still knitting, though moving on to more complicated stitches – the heel of the sock.

"Then explain this 'accidentally' to me."

"It was something I learned from my therapist quite a few years ago."

"Therapist?" Taichi cocked his head. "I didn't know you went to therapy."

"Are you honestly surprised?" Yamato seemed to retreat into himself, practically staring a hole through the brand new half-a-sock. Taichi didn't want ready holes in his socks before he even got to wear them. He would wear holes into them himself, dammit!

With a gentle smile, Taichi sat himself on the armrest of the armchair Yamato was in. "No; to be honest, I'm not surprised, but I just didn't expect therapy to involve knitting. Was it combined with a home economics class or something? Trying to save time?"

Yamato shoved an elbow into Taichi's thigh. "Shut up." The smile came through the words, though, making Taichi smile in response.

"I'm not judging you."

"I know."

"Was this before or after our first time in the Digital World?"

"After. If it had been before, I would've—"

"Taken your knitting needles with you and I would have mocked you to death about them," Taichi cut in.

"… I was gonna say that I would've been a nicer person had I gone before—"

"It's not like therapy changed you into a nicer person, fyi. You're still pretty shit."

"Yeah, well, joke's on you since you're dating this piece of shit," Yamato replied cheekily.

Taichi leaned over and wrapped an arm around Yamato's neck, pecking him on the temple and leaving his face right next to Yamato's. "I still love you, you piece of shit."

Yamato shoved Taichi off him playfully. "You would since this piece of shit is nice enough to knit you socks. Although, it's not like you're letting me do it. So shove a sock in it, I guess?"

"I would but a certain someone is very slow when it comes to knitting said socks."

"If you would stop disturbing me, I'd be done with this one by the end of the day. In fact, I planned on knitting these in secret, considering they're supposed to be a Christmas present and thus a secret, but you don't leave me alone long enough to get these done before Christmas."

"I like watching you knit."

"Good, 'cause that's all you get to do until I get these done."

Taichi moved back to the couch, content to just sit and watch the dark red yarn slide over Yamato's pale fingers, onto the bamboo needles, and finally join the ready stitches in the heel of the sock.

"They didn't have orange yarn at the store," Yamato started and moved the needles around to start working on the gusset of the sock, heel done. "Originally, I wanted to make you orange socks with blue stripes on the leg, to reflect your crest and football jersey colours, but it would have taken a bit longer since I'm not great at jogless joins and I might have messed up the number of rows and it would have looked messy. I didn't want to give you ugly socks, so a solid colour is all you're getting."

Taichi pursed his lips, staring at Yamato in contemplation. "I see."

Yamato flicked Taichi a look from under his fringe, "do you?"

"Nope," Taichi announced, stretching his arms over his head and grinning. "The only thing I understood was that you're not good at Jogress. And that's a lie."

"I said 'jogless' not 'Jogress.'"

"Is that the opposite of Jogress, then? If it is, then it's probably true that you're shit at it."

"I didn't say I was shit at it; I said I'm not great at it."

"Same difference," Taichi shrugged.

"And it's not the opposite of Jogress, anyway; it's actually similar in that it's the process of switching colours seamlessly when knitting. Making the two colours look like they came from the same ball of yarn when, in fact, they came from two separate ones."

"'Joining two things seamlessly into one,' huh? That sure does sound a lot like Jogress evolution. And like something else I know of that we could do. And we're good at it, to boot."

"Taichi," there was a warning in Yamato's tone, though his eyes never left the sock in his hands, "I'm not going to finish these both in time for Christmas if you don't stop bothering me."

Taichi feigned innocence. "I didn't do anything! I was just asking about knitting."

Yamato flashed him a glare. "Right, of course you were, sorry," he mocked.

Taichi stuck his tongue out at the blond. "By the way, how did you learn knitting from your therapist 'accidentally?' I haven't forgotten you used that word."

"She had used knitting to calm herself and centre her thoughts. We tried a form of eye movement therapy—I can't remember the exact psychological term, but something like that. It didn't work for me and it hadn't worked for her, either, and she told me that she had used knitting in a similar way. The point of the therapy is to let negative thoughts or previous traumas come, but to be doing something, like small movements with the eyes or hands, and let the thoughts come, but the physical movement keeps you rooted to reality and you won't become consumed by the thoughts."

"Are you thinking negative thoughts now?"

Yamato actually looked up at that, eyes wide. "No, no, I'm not." He smiled, returning to his needlework. "I don't use knitting for that anymore. I just like making things. Same with cooking and music; it's something I can do with my hands and lets me create something for someone I love." Yamato paused, staring ahead. "That just came out way too cheesy."

Taichi laughed, got up, and walked over to give Yamato a kiss. "Want to start making something edible for someone you love?"

"Dad won't be home until tomorrow evening."

"Har har."

Yamato grinned. "Fine, I'll make you something." He got up, put his knitting on the armchair, and stretched himself towards the ceiling. His back cracked. "Ah, that felt good."

"Disgusting," Taichi made a face, which twisted even more when Yamato deliberately cracked his neck. "Ugh," Taichi shuddered, "I hope you break your neck doing that one day."

"Then who would cook for you?" Yamato asked as he made his way past Taichi, brushing his hand against the brunet's forearm.

"I'll find myself a new boyfriend."

"You wouldn't." Yamato walked into the kitchen.

"I probably couldn't, to be fair; there's no way I'd get over your death." Taichi followed, only to run into Yamato, who turned around and kissed Taichi on the mouth.

"I love you."

Taichi smiled and returned the kiss. "I love you, too."