*Buzz buzz*

Arik looked down at the phone by his desk, a small smile hitting his face as he saw who it was that texted him.

'Hey bby, I got a pretty gr8 Xmas presnt 4 u.'

He snorted, quickly typing a reply to him.

'Dick pics aren't presents, especially when I've been around yours a lot.'

'No, its better thn that, u have 2 cum ovr.'

'Sex isn't a present either, because I get sex every day for free.'

'Thats bcause ur a ho Arik, nw get dat ass ovr here.'

Arik shook his head with a slight chuckle, closing his laptop and grabbing his coat, pocketing his phone before heading out the door. He felt a bit bad for leaving Dragon Strom before Christmas, but they'd forgive him. Hopefully. Maybe not Yuuki, because she still disliked him seeing Leif, saying something about how he was such a bad influence. She was getting better though, and maybe once she stopped having a stick up her ass she'd be fine with it.

It was snowing, but it didn't really bother the were. It'd be faster if he shifted, and probably better as his were side would love to go on a run. Arik didn't want to seem too needy though, getting there as fast as he could to embrace his love in a hug. Plus, he didn't want to seem overly excited about it either. A nice walk would be fine, even through the hustle of people trying to get last minute gifts and rushing to get together with their families for the holidays. Arik didn't have much of a family, he had Dragon Storm and Leif but none of his blood family was still out there, or at least he didn't know where his sister was yet, given she was still alive. He didn't ponder about it too much, he enjoyed the family he had gained over the years.

Leif didn't have a house of his own, but rather shared a huge- and dare he say glorious –condo with another person named Xylathain. Arik wondered if Xyl was home or not, and if he had his boyfriend Haru over. He chuckled, it sure was a house full of gays. Before he even got a chance to knock on the door Xylathain had already opened it, greeting him with a wide smile. It was warm in the condo, like it was normally, and Xyl was wearing an apron that said 'Kiss the Chef' on it, which made him guess that the man was cooking. He could already smell the meals that were cooking. The salamander left to his kitchen and Arik stepped in, closing the door behind him. He instinctively searched for Leif, seeing him talking to a new shorter man who was at least twenty years, if not older, than Leif. The blonde turned his head, smiling and lighting up when he saw Arik. He motioned the man to follow him as he ran over to Arik, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the new man. Arik just chuckled a little, a bit confused at what was so exciting about this person.

Leif stopped, turning so he could easily look at them both. "Arik, this is Axel. Axel, this is Arik," he said, motioning to them respectfully. Arik smiled at the man, extending a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Axel." He said as the older man shook his hand, paying no attention to the fact that he seemed to be a bit unhappy about it. "Yeah… you too." He said, eyeing Leif before turning and heading to the dining room. "Well, that was a bit weird, wasn't it?" Arik said, watching Leif to make sure he didn't try and do any surprising moves on him. "Yeah, my dad can be a bit strange sometimes, but I think Xyl's done cooking so let's go!" Leif exclaimed, lightly taking Arik's hand again to drag him off. Arik wasn't as willing to be dragged off this time, his smile fading. "Wait, your dad?" He asked, looking almost stunned. Leif turned, keeping his smile even as it turned slightly guilty. "Well, yeah. I figured we've been dating long enough that you should have a chance to meet him, but I didn't want you acting like this and making a complete fool of yourself," he said with a shrug, trying once again to pull the were off to dinner.

"Leif, that was your father." Arik said, a serious tone to his voice. The blonde was still trying to get him to budge, so Arik pulled back, and while Leif was obviously letting him do so, pinned the blonde to the wall. Leif just looked down on the dark-haired boy with an interested smile, most likely wanting to comment on how sexy this was. It made Arik wish he was a little taller so that maybe Leif would listen to him for once. "He probably doesn't like me already; did you see the way he acted? He probably thought that I was 'too cool' for him or something by the way that I acted." Arik paused for a moment before thinking of something else to say. "I hope he's not expecting to see my family, because I don't have any contact or any idea of where they are."

The blonde rolled his eyes and put a hand on Arik's arm. "Relax, he acts like he doesn't like new people just like you. I'm sure it's fine. Plus, I don't think he was exactly expecting all this anyways, so bringing your family into the mix probably would make it worse. Now, can y-" Before Leif was able to finish his sentence Xyl called from the kitchen "Are you two almost ready? Everyone's waiting!" Arik sighed, letting go of the blonde and turning to head off to the kitchen.

Dinner was rather normal, Xyl and Haru sat by each other talking almost the whole time while Leif sat with Arik on his left and his dad on his right. Arik, who was still slightly mad at Leif, didn't talk much and enjoyed the meal on his own while the blonde and his short dad talked. It would be so much easier to be mad at him if it wasn't so hard to be mad at him in the first place. He didn't even know why he wanted to be mad at him, it almost felt like he should, but being mad wasn't even good to be. The younger man casted a look at Leif's father. He didn't seem like such a bad guy, so was he just afraid of him? Afraid of being unfavored by his boyfriend's parents and forbidden to see him again? That's what he should worry about as a teenager, they were both legal adults by now, allowed to do anything they wanted considering it abided by the law. If Arik shared his fear to Leif the blonde would probably make a remark about how a forbidden romance was sexier than being pinned to a wall.

Everyone was about done with their meals, and Arik noticed that Leif bent closer to his father to whisper something to him. Maybe there was a pang of jealousy too, as he was the only one who didn't seem to be having that much fun, granted he wasn't trying to join in on the fun in the first place. His attention moved to what the other couple was doing, trying to keep his mind off the great father-son relationship Leif and his dad seemed to be having.

Soon enough, Leif raised his glass and gently hit his fork against it. 'Pretty sure you're supposed to do that with a spoon,' Arik thought idly, but not wanting to be rude by saying it out loud. Xyl and Leif both had big smiles on their faces, which almost made Arik want to scowl at them, but he made his face seem slightly interested in whatever Leif had to say. The blonde turned to face the black-haired boy, and he pushed his chair back to be able to awkwardly get down on one of his knees. It took Arik a second to realize what he was doing, and by then he had already started to talk with an open box in his hands.

"Arik, will you marry me?"

The younger man's first thought was that Leif must have practiced this a lot, as he wouldn't have been able to say the words so loud and clear. His second was just pure shock and surprise. The were didn't even have to look around to know that everyone else was staring at them, it should have been a well-known fact by now. He knew what you were supposed to say, but his brain didn't want to function enough to move his tongue in the way to say it. Now that he was thinking about it, the young adult wouldn't have been confident enough to even ask this. It made him glad that he wasn't forced to

"Yes."