Aoba had never been more glad for Ren's company as he was during the holiday season.

Ren, tall, gentle, and muscular, was very helpful in moving around the giant filing cabinets and desks Aoba needed to shift so that the janitors could clean his classroom during the long upcoming winter break. The kid volunteered the past two years after he'd completed Aoba's Graphic Design 201 class.

And, to his credit, Ren was also one hell of a listener.

"It's such bullshit!" Aoba complained as he graded paper after paper from his Creative Writing class. "I got a memo from the board today and they've decided the professors aren't even allowed to wish people "Happy Holidays" anymore!"

"What do they want you to say instead?" Ren asked as he heaved another desk to the corner of the room.

"They want us to say 'Happy Non-Denominational Winter Season,'" Aoba quoted with disdain. "I guess somebody's mom got pissed because they don't celebrate any sort of holiday around this time of year."

Ren made a noncommittal sound and continued his heavy lifting.

"Do you celebrate Christmas, Ren? Or Hanukah? Kwanza?" Aoba asked, moving five more pages of the final exam into the 'Done' basket on his desk.

Ren paused to think for a second about how to explain it. "Well, we do celebrate Christmas, but we don't really do any of the religious stuff connected with it. My mom and dad are both practicing wiccans so we celebrate the winter solstice in my house. How about you, Mr. Seragaki?"

"Ren, if I have to tell you to call me Aoba one more time I swear-" a sharp rap at the classroom door drew the attention of both males. "Get that for me, Ren? I have like one more question to grade."

"Yeah," Ren said and pulled open the door to reveal Mizuki, the professor from just down the hall. "Morning, Professor."

"Good morning. Is Aoba, uh, in?" Mizuki asked nervously.

Ren spied the bouquet of roses and the bag of what smelled like chocolates and his expression hardened as Mizuki's demeanor made more sense. "Actually, he's out at the moment. I can take a message or something for you if you'd like."

"Um, yeah. Tell him Merry Christmas from me, and if you wouldn't mind giving him these for me?" Mizuki held out the bouquet and the bag and then fled from the doorway with a hasty goodbye over his shoulder.

Ren scoffed and let the door swing closed. He plopped the aforementioned gifts onto Aoba's desk, where the blue-haired professor was just finishing up his final paper.

"How come you told him I was out?" Aoba asked curiously, neatening up the stack of papers and scantrons.

"You don't need such a nosy guy hanging around you. You're trying to get all of your end of the semester work done, you don't need somebody like that around distracting you," Ren asserted firmly.

Aoba shoved the papers into his briefcase. "Eh, Mizuki talks a lot, sure, but he's a good guy. He's been so awkward around me for the past few weeks I thought he was going to ask me out," he raised an eyebrow at Ren's frown. "Is there something wrong with that, Ren?"

"Nothing's wrong with that. Nothing at all," Ren muttered quickly, shoving another filing cabinet into the corner of the room.

"Oh, but there is, isn't there?" Aoba asked curiously, moving in front of Ren just as the taller man released the cabinet. "There's something bothering you about Mizuki liking me, am I right?"

"Just leave it alone, Aoba, okay?" Ren pleaded, trying to move past his golden-eyed ex-professor and failing.

"C'mon, Ren! 'Tis the season to share and care!" Aoba teased, getting up on his tip-toes and managing to ruffle Ren's hair. "Tell me what's wrong and I promise it'll stay in this room, yeah?"

Ren sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering who exactly was the working adult here and who was supposed to be the immature college kid. "I really don't want to tell you, that's the problem."

"Well, if you won't talk to me, then I guess I'll just go and say hi to Mizuki and-" Aoba made his way to the door only to be grabbed around the middle, spun around, and pressed up agains the wall by something very tall and very strong.

Ren's lips met Aoba's very demandingly - there was hunger there. There was the sign of a long-suppressed desire for contact and suddenly there was also a hand running through Aoba's hair, gently tugging on the long blue strands.

Minutes passed, though the kiss felt about half that long.

When Aoba could finally breathe again he regulated his air intake and output and stared long and hard at his former student.

"Well, Happy Non-Denominational Winter Season to me!"