This is it, my maiden voyage in the Tennis no Ohjisama fandom (which happens to be a Konomi Takeshi creation), as well as my first publishing of shounen-ai. I hope I do these genres mercy.
:Updated December 6, 2004: Rehashed for typos.
:Updated April 23, 2005: Typos and clarity.

And an important note about something in the fic: Oishi talks about the temperature and says that it is 12º. Bear in mind that they are in Japan, so the measurement is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. So the temperature is 12º Celsius and 54º Fahrenheit, for those of you who, like me, are more used to American measurements.

Summary:When practice ends they get to enjoy those special moments so easily taken for granted. The Golden Pair share each other's company, and something deeper. They'd go out for ice cream, even in December. Oishi POV.
Warnings: Waff, shounen-ai, Holiday!Fic.

Eiji steps out of the clubroom and waves at me. "Hey, Oishi! Let's go get ice cream, okay?"

I nod at him and wave back to let him know my answer, as if it could be anything else. He ducks back inside to grab his bag and I hear a voice behind me.

"Why do you do that?"

It's Ryoma.

"What's wrong?" I ask, defending our silly traditions. "Don't you like ice cream?"

He raises an eyebrow, skeptic and confused. "But senpai, it's December."

Ice Cream in December by KyuuketsukiShounen

I don't love it because I like being cold. It's not that I want to do something that's strange or different. It's not particularly lavish, or extravagant either. It tastes great, sure, but that isn't really why I cherish it so much. But the fact is I love ice cream in December.

I shoulder my bag and we move together, Eiji and I. Every year we do this, and it never changes, and I hope against hope that it never will. The two of us go out for ice cream, forget the weather, forget everything but what a good time we're having.

The two of us leave the school grounds and head over to the edge of downtown, to the ice cream shop that we haunt so often, I'm sure the manager has pictures of us tacked up in her office with the caption of 'valuable customers' beneath our black-and-white faces. A breeze pushes past us. I pull my jacket tighter around me and make sure that Eiji's is zipped up. His jacket is thinner than mine. He looks cold, so I offer to trade coats.

"No, it's alright," he tells me, but I make him take it. As he pulls my jacket on, I see his nose twitch.

"Is it alright?" I ask him, trying to think back to the last time I washed it, but he buries his face in the collar and takes a deep breath.

"It smells like you. It's nice."

I fuss over him and make sure it's on him right with the buttons buttoned and the zippers zipped, but I'm just trying to hide my embarrassed smile.

We 'cut through' the park, strolling down the winding roads that twist between the trees, even though it really would be faster if we just stuck to the main road. We enjoy each other's company, so I guess that's all that really matters and I cherish the extra time I get to have with him. We stop at the pond to see the last of the ducks, trying to stand the lowering temperatures, wanting to stay home as much as possible before they can't take it anymore and have to leave for the south for warmer climes. I turn to look at Eiji standing beside me. He watches the birds paddling around in their little pool with a serene smile on his face. He never was hard to please.

As we leave the silence to return to the more familiar sounds of the city, Eiji spots a seasonal peddler, selling some Christmas trinkets. He gets excited and latches onto my arm, pointing and grunting as if he were a baby, unable to form real words.

"One ornament, then?" I ask Eiji, but he shakes his head vehemently.

"No! Two."

I leave him waiting excitedly as I go to buy the holiday wares. After I pay the lady and exchange a friendly "Merry Christmas," I turn back to where I left Eiji. I see him standing there, with his head cocked back and his eyes pointing straight into the bleak bluish-gray of the winter sky. He watches it so intently and I can see his breath, making brief clouds in the air. He's detached from the world around him, making a world of his own, one that isn't so willing to crush his happiness.

Without having to ask, without even hesitating, I know he's wondering whether it will snow today. It's a very childish thought to have. It's cold, but not too bad. At lowest, the temperature has to be around 12º. Chilly, but not near cold enough for snow. Especially here in the city, with all the pollution. But of course, I would never tell him that. He has so many hopes and dreams, more than enough to go around, but I couldn't even steal away one of them. He's just so perfectly naive, I don't think I could stand it to see him crushed, even a little bit. I stare with my hands in my pockets, so entranced by his innocence that I don't pretend to look away when he turns to me.

"What are you doing?" I ask from where I'm standing, half-awake, half-dreaming.

He looks at me a little sheepishly and tells me, "I'm waiting for the snowflakes. I want to catch them on my tongue."

As he prances over, I startle, beginning to wake from my sleepless dreaming. He must have caught me staring. If he did, he doesn't say anything about it. He just yanks on my arm so I'll get my hand out of my pocket and takes hold of it.

I fully come back to my senses and back in my pocket the hand goes. I pull out the two ornaments, a miniature wreath and a glass candy cane, both balled up in tissue paper, and thrust out my hands, palms up.

"Take them."

He takes the one on the left - the candy cane - and puts it into his bag.

I furrow my brows. "Didn't you want two?" I remind him, eyeing the remaining trinket. He shakes his head at me and makes me close my fingers around it, pushing it back towards me.

"One for me and one for you," he explains, with a smile on his face that makes me want to melt in my shoes. A little dazed, I put it into my pocket, as he reclaims my hand.

He pulls me along and I'm still a little foggy. While we walk down the sidewalk, I venture a look at him. He glances about, excited with all the holiday merriment and knickknacks that the stores have put on display. It makes me happy to see him get so stirred up by the same decorations we see year after year. They never change and neither does he. But maybe that's what makes him so glad to see them, the fact that they'll always be there for him. And maybe that's why we're always together, the knowing that we'll always be around for each other, to take blows for each other, to bring comfort when we're down.

His cheeks are red, stung a little by the cold, and against the winter background they look even more vivacious than usual. His hair looks brilliant as well, always making him strikingly different and much easier for me to find him when he gets lost in the crowd at the carnival or at a theme park. But what really draws me are his eyes.

They're an endless blue that never ceases to dazzle me, to pull me in closer. I know it's a cliche, but they really are like pools of water, and when I look at them I just want to get closer and closer and then I think that it wouldn't be so bad todrown.

We pass the parade of department stores and electronics shops and we peek into each one. Whenever we spot something that Eiji wants, he 'sneakily' mentions how he's been wanting it all year long and how his parents would never buy it for him, although I know that today is the first time he's ever seen it. Still, I take his requests to heart because I want him to know that I'll always listen to him.

He pulls me along through the urban maze, urging me to go faster, but slowing down our path himself with his window shopping. I don't care because it's just so him, and also because I don't want this evening to end.

I look ahead and see that we're only feet away from the ice cream shop. I feel a little disappointed, but grateful we went out and upheld our little tradition.

I push the door open with Eiji behind me and jingle bells tinkle from the top of the doorway. The sudden warmth from their heater is welcoming. The comforting aroma of coffee wafts into my nose, something the shop has to rely on in the winter months to sell when the normal people don't want any ice cream. But Eiji sprints over to the ice cream and points right at what he wants through the glass, bouncing with anticipation. I shake my head and order my own cone. Mine is ready first, being much simpler and easier to put together. I dig out my money from my wallet and hand it to the man over the counter as he hands me my vanilla ice cream. Eiji eyes me jealously and I let him have the first lick.

His ice cream is still in the making because he ordered the special kind, which they make on the spot with real strawberries, instead of the fake ready-made kind with the artificial flavoring. We watch the strawberries go into the blender as we sit at a table, listening to the fuzzy American Christmas carols recorded sometime in the fifties that the owner likes to play at this time of year.

When Eiji's ice cream is finally ready he jumps up, never one to hide his excitement. He suddenly freezes and I ask him what's wrong.

He doesn't have any money with him. All life seems to drain from his face and even his hair seems to have lost a little of its spring. He desperately begs me to pay for it as if he needed to beg. I know if I refuse, he'll pout and stomp out of the store, proclaiming he'll never talk to me again, but eventually forget and tell me about something funny that happened at school. But I don't, because he doesn't need to be teased.

When I pull out my own wallet and hand the cashier the money Eiji leaps on me with a hug, squeezing me tight, with just enough room to breathe. The cashier chuckles and I blush, burying my face in Eiji's soft, soft hair as I hug him back awkwardly with one hand, the other one occupied holding an ice cream cone.

And as we leave the ice cream store I feel suddenly desperate, sad that the day is gone.

"Hey, Eiji," I say, to get his attention. He looks at me, eyes wide and so earnest. "Wanna come over and watch movies with me?"

"Nyaa! I love holiday movies!"

And I stop holding my breath and just feel so relieved that it doesn't have to end right now.

So I want to laugh out loud because this day has been so perfect, so simple. Because even though I see him everyday I never get tired of him. Because even though I get a chill each time I take a lick of my ice cream, I only need to look at Eiji to feel warm inside and all over, just a touch from him to thaw me, a hug from him to make me boil over.

And that's why I love it, love it, love it. I love that ice cream in December.

Afterthoughts: There you have it, my debut. I just want to thank all of you who read it and ask that you review. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. Love and Peace, fellow authors and readers.