December 24th - Christmas Eve (Just imagine where they are, I have no idea!)
Things were finally looking up for Lovino. For the first couple of weeks in December he had absolutely despaired trying to balance all his work and find the perfect present for Antonio. Then on the 15th, Antonio had got the idea into his head that he wanted to try going to a German Christmas Market, as he had heard that they were amazing.
At that point he thought that he may as well let Toni be happy, even if he couldn't find a perfect Christmas present, anyway, even if they do belong to potato bastards, they're still shops, right?
Anyway, Toni was delighted, so, after checking that Lovino wasn't ill, they went to the city it was in by train. After wandering around and eating (pasta he had bought with him, otherwise he would have to eat potato bastard food with potatoes in it!), Toni decided he wanted to go on the merry-go-round and used the excuse that he had just seen another adult get on as well. Lovino thought that if he went on so soon after eating, he'd probably throw up, so instead he looked around and managed to find the perfect Christmas present staring right at him (not literally!).
It was corny and cheesy, but also kind of sweet and just perfect for Antonio.
He filled in the form and ordered it right away and then spent days at home, doing even more work and then putting up Christmas decorations and wrapping the presents he had bought for everybody else. Everyone else was easy. Toni was not.
Then, after a massive load of frantic worrying, only calmed by Toni's concern for his mental health, the present arrived. He wrapped it and placed it right at the back of the tree, behind all the silly presents that they bought each other every year. There was definitely a basket of tomatoes each there, and those would be unwrapped first, then eaten as the rest were unwrapped.
So, fortunately, the most of the panic was over. However, it was still present in Lovino's mind. What if he doesn't like it? What if he think's it's silly? What if he thinks it's horrible? It just kept swirling round and round and he felt like he was going to throw up the panettone* he was eating. In fact, he did, Lovino ran to the bathroom and narrowly avoided throwing up on Feli's cat. For some reason, Feli had decided to donate it to him.
But then Toni was there, rubbing soothing circles into his spine as Lovino threw up and then threw up again, until there was nothing left for him to throw up so he was just dry heaving instead.
Lovino finally managed to sit up, and murmured to Toni,
"I'm fine, I just got a little bit too stressed out, that's all," his voice cracked and a tear rolled down his cheek. "Could I have a glass of water please?"
"Lovi-" Toni was staring at him, as the tears started to roll down Lovino's face and he interrupted: "Please, Toni, just get me some water." Toni left, and Lovino went to follow him, but paused for a minute to wipe his eyes on a tissue.
It should be simple. But in Lovino's mind, nothing could ever be simple when Antonio was involved.