ch.12: Hunk Loves Christmas
Today's Christmas , Hunk's favorite holidays. Not for the gifts, not for the time off of school, not even for the delicious food or alcohol his parents have snuck him during Christmas for the past three years. Nope, Hunk's favorite thing about it is the warmth and family . Even before college, ever since he could remember, his favorite part was the gathering of family and all of the hugs and kisses and smiles.
From the end of Thanksgiving, his mother gets super excited. After family leaves on thanksgiving she begins putting up decorations. When he was little he she would lift him up to hang the garland and lights in the house really high. Now he can reach the same height without it, but she always reminisces about those times when he's putting it all up, making the same joke about how if he can't reach something he can always lift her to get it.
Black Friday she goes crazy . Before he was twelve she would leave him at home, but once he was old enough to be useful during it, he saw just what his mother was capable of. She's fairly small, a big contrast to his tall and physically imposing father, yet on black Friday she will barrel through crowds, strong arm things away from people who try to steal what she has. One year, when he was 16, she actually punched a man in the face for trying to take the gift she had bought Hunk. He obviously wasn't next to her when it happened but he heard the commotion and came to check on her, seeing his tiny mother hovering over a large man with a brand new shiner.
Before he even got there she'd had the wherewithal to wrap his gift in her jacket.
The woman is incredible.
After black Friday, though, she always goes back to her calm and sweet self. December 1st she decorates the tree, without fail. When he was little they decorated together, even after he met Lance he would stay home on the 1st and just spend the day with his mom (unless it fell on a school day, obviously). She would start the day with christmas music, Hunk waking up to the sounds of his favorite holiday songs, and when he came downstairs there would be Christmas pancakes which were just pancakes with a whipped cream snowman and berries for decoration on it. If it was a school day, as soon as he came home he'd be greeted to the music and pancakes. No matter what day it was, though, they always decorated the tree right after he finished eating.
Once the tree was decorated, he would curl up on the couch with his mother and father and watch Christmas movies until bedtime.
The rest of the month was full of random Christmas activities each day, that Lance happily joined in once they met. His parents would set up a gingerbread house day, gingerbread man day, other DIY things like making a Santa hat or their own stocking or new decoration for the tree of their family and the other's. Over the years both his and Lance's parents have received so many ornaments from each of them they had to actually start buying bigger trees, then gave up altogether and started hanging some up on the walls.
Nowadays, though, it all starts when they come down around the 20th. Music, pancakes, gingerbread houses, and now his mother will undo the tree on the night of the 19th so when Hunk arrives they can decorate together. He doesn't get it, thinks it's a bit much, but is honestly would be so heartbroken if she stopped.
Before he met Lance, his Christmases were spent at home with all of his family. His mother and father's parents are native Samoans, and still live there, but since Hunk was born they come all the way here to celebrate Christmas, along with aunts and uncles and cousins. The home was always so full of love and life. It still is, although his grandparents have all passed, everyone else still comes up and now he has Lance's family as well.
Since they met they grew close immediately, and with them living right next door to one another they would visit each other on Christmas day. Eventually it got to the point of the families sharing the two boys on the holiday. One year they ate dinner with one family and dessert with the other. Present opening at both places fell after the meals so everyone get to enjoy everything.
Both families took each boy into their celebrations with open arms, since Lance's family is just as big on Christmas and family. Since the age of probably 7 or 8, Lance and Hunk have celebrated Christmas together and they wouldn't have it any other way. Although, if Hunk is being honest, he'd be really happy if they could come home with significant others at some point. Like, oh say, Shay and Keith.
Just a thought.
This year, of course, it's just them. It's also a year where dinner is at the McClain home. Hunk and Lance have already opened presents with the family, Luis trying not to pout in front of his wife and daughter over his new ugly sweater. The tradition started about ten years ago when Lance found a christmas sweater he loved and bought it with some money he earned babysitting for a neighbor. Luis thought it was gross and one day grabbed it to clean up a mess, ruining it forever. When Lance cried about it, Luis told him only losers got ugly sweaters, so that christmas Lance made him one.
The first year Luis was pissed , but Hunk's been informed by his wife that he still has all ten sweaters in a storage container at home. He lets their daughter wear them under the condition she doesn't do it in front of Lance and she doesn't tell him her father still has them. Hunk hopes Luis tells him eventually, he knows Lance would be so happy to hear it he'd probably cry for an hour.
Anyways, they are eating dinner now, Luis handing Lance glass after glass of eggnog. The meal itself is, as usual, huge and vastly different from what they have at his home. It's a traditional Cuban feast. There are bacalao fritters which are salt cod fritters, eggplant and tomato stew, a salad, mojo marinated pork, and mashed boniato with onions. At first these foods didn't feel like Christmas for him, little 8 year old Hunk frowned at the taste the first time. It was delicious, but his parents make the basic American Christmas meal, so all the spices and flavors felt wrong to associate with the holiday.
Now he loves it.
He catches Luis slipping Lance a fourth cup of eggnog and Hunk snatches it up from the clearly drunk teen, "Dude you need to chill."
"Nah, come on." Lance pouts, "I love eggnog."
"Yeah, well," Hunk sniffs the drink and wrinkles his nose, "I'm 90% sure this has very little actual eggnog in it. Luis is trying to get you drunk."
"Aw, Hunk, don't rain on my parade." Luis smirks, "I want to see Lance strip down to his boxers and be a reindeer again like last year."
"As his best friend, I cannot allow that to happen." Hunk points out and Lance gives him a grateful smile. Everyone goes back to eating for a while, until Lance pulls out his phone. "Whatchya doin, buddy?"
"Calling Keith." Lance says, a determined look in his eye, "I want to wish him a Merry Christmas. I already sent Pidge a text, I don't want Keith to think I'm avoiding him."
Hunk smiles fondly at his friend, "Then you can get away with a text message, right? It's Christmas, I'm sure he's busy."
Lance looks at his phone with a soft smile, "Yeah, his brother and him are with Pidge's family." He says before nodding to himself, "Alright! I'm gonna text him instead!"
Hunk rolls his eyes and watches Lance send a message, then sees the large grin on his face when Keith responds almost immediately. He texts furiously for two minutes before his eyes go wide and he smacks Hunk's shoulder.
"KEITH SPEAKS SPANISH !" Lance screams, holding his phone up to Hunk, "LOOK AT HIM! I MEAN, IT!"
Hunk laughs a little and sees their conversation. Poor Keith seems so confused, but Hunk's got to admit he's impressed with how dedicated he seemed to be towards Spanish in high school. Five years is a lot. "That's pretty cool, Lance."
Lance nods and goes back to texting him, "Dios mio, he's speaking Spanish to me." He breathes out, staring at his screen with the dopiest grin ever before suddenly going bright red and shoving his phone in his pocket.
"What's up?"
"N-nothing!" His best friend squeaks out, going back to his meal.
"Ok…" Hunk drops it for a few minutes, eating as well.
Until the curiosity starts eating him up inside.
"Did he say something weird?"
"I...um...I think he's hitting on me?" Lance offers and Hunk's eyes almost pop out of his head.
"Keith!? Keith-Keith!? Does he know how to flirt?"
"I-I don't know! It was probably an accident!" The lanky teen looks at him in a panic, "Keith accidentally hit on me in Spanish ! How am I supposed to be able to handle that!?"
"Lance…" Hunk narrows his eyes, "Did you leave Keith hanging? For almost twelve minutes?"
"Um…" Lance looks away sheepishly and Hunk looms over him.
"You text that boy back right this instant."
"R-right."
Lance's mother, Rosita, looks to them confused, "Keith is that boy in your videos, right?" She asks and Luis smirks.
"The one Lance is always flirting with."
"Texting him on the holidays during dinner, boy you've got it bad!" Marco laughs, patting his youngest sibling on the back.
"Keith must have it pretty bad, too, if he's texting back." Veronica points out with a knowing smirk, "How lucky for you."
Lance pretends to ignore him, but his blush is reaching his ears as he smiles down at his phone for a minute more before looking up, "He's just a friend, we don't flirt, and yes mama he's the boy from the videos."
"He's cute." Rosita says and his father Diego laughs from beside her.
"It's true, he is! Snatch that boy up, mijo!"
Lance goes an even darker shade of red and sinks into his seat before getting a new message. The look on his face is one of pure horror. "It's his brother." He whispers and Hunk leans over to him.
"No way."
"What the fuck do I say to him?"
"Play it cool." Hunk says and Veronica yells over him.
"Ask him for his baby brother's hand in marriage!"
Lance focuses on his phone a little too intensely and then screams, "He wants to know why I'm messaging Keith! What do I say!?"
"Tell him you're pitching woo." Luis teases.
"Tell him because you missed Keith." Marco suggests, and honestly Hunk is pretty sure he's right.
"Tell him so you can get a peace when you get home." Veronica deadpans and Lance chucks a bacalao fritter at her.
"It's fine, Keith got it ba-nope. Wait. That's not Keith."
"How do you know?" His niece, Luisa, asks curiously.
"Keith doesn't call me 'dear'."
"Maybe he's starting now." Marius, his nephew, teases.
"Nope, it's Pidge's mom." Lance says before grinning, "Cool I'm talking to Pidge's mo-oh nope she's gone."
"Pidge's mom gets excitement and Keith's brother gets fear?" Hunk asks, amused.
"He doesn't want in Pidge's pants." Luis points out, earning him a smack on the forearm from his wife.
"There are children here!" She scolds and he quickly apologizes. "Jeez, you're ridiculous."
"Love you, too." Luis teases, kissing her on the cheek.
The rest of dinner is pretty uneventful, even though Lance is still periodically texting Keith everyone eventually drops it. After dinner they hug everyone and excitedly head off to Hunk's family's for dessert. His mother made a big spread, as always. There is fa'ausi, a traditional samoan dessert made of coconut bread covered in a sweet coconut sauce, then pies and pudding and even a cheesecake.
Lance takes a picture of it all and sends it to Keith, laughing and showing Hunk his response.
Keith:
(4:30) God damn, it figures Hunk's family kitchen table would look like heaven in dessert form.
Hunk smiles. "We'll bring them some back."
"Apparently cheesecake is his favorite dessert." Lance says and Hunk nods.
"Gotcha. I'll make it for him on his birthday." He decides and Lance types before rolling his eyes.
"He said to tell you that you're his favorite." Lance pouts at his phone, "I could make cheesecake."
"You haven't made any meals for him yet. When they come to pick up desserts from us, just make dinner."
"Yeah," His friend grins, " Yeah . I'll knock his socks off with my sweet cooking skills."
Hunk sighs in relief. Finally, a normal way of flirting.
"So Keith is that boy you do your videos with, right?" Hunk's mother, Teuila (Tay-wee-lah), asks and he nods.
"Yeah."
Teuila shares a knowing smile with his mother, "Looks like Lance's taste is getting better."
Hunk laughs. "Let's hope so!"
"So tell us about Shay." Teuila smirks and Hunk shoots a dirty look at Lance who just grins.
"Lance says you have a date." His dad, Manuia, says, coming up and standing next to his wife.
"W-well...um...she's 20 years old, and works at the local ER. She's in college to become and RN." Hunk explains and his parents nod.
"So how did you meet?" Manuia asks.
"Lance got himself hurt at school one day, it was actually how we met Pidge, too. He was dicking around on a wall at school that's about five feet up and then he fell right onto Pidge's car. She followed us to the hospital to make sure he was okay, and Shay treated him." Hunk smiles softly as he remembers how panicked Pidge had been and how calm and helpful Shay was. Lance had been unconscious and Pidge was a bigger mess than him, Hunk having grown pretty numb to it over the years, but as he and Pidge were brought out of the room so the doctor could be alone with Lance, Shay had taken the time not only to comfort Pidge, but also Hunk.
She had been talking to Pidge, telling her the facts about concussions and how he would be okay because it wasn't a serious one. Once the girl had calmed down a bit, Shay got up and placed a hand on Hunk's, smiling down at him with the most beautiful, gentle smile he'd ever seen. She asked if he was worried, he admitted Lance does this shit pretty frequently and she just smiled and pointed out he could still be worried about him. That was when he realized he was, and got teary eyed, bemoaning his best friend's ability to always do the dumbest, most dangerous, shit.
Shay comforted him for a bit and then left, leaving him and Pidge alone. That was when Pidge and him started really talking. They had some classes together and bonded over Lance's stupid ass decisions fucking with other people.
After that night he saw Shay at school and she talked to him and Lance, always warning the latter not to do anything too dangerous. Once Lance was back in school Pidge came back, too, hounding him to pay for the damage his body did to her car. He did, and then decided Hunk and him needed to take her under their wing and started to show up after their shared classes to drag them off to places for lunch of studying.
Once he's finished his story, the whole family has gathered to hear it, and laugh some. It's good natured, not even teasing, just warm and amused.
"We asked about the girl you have a date with, not the girl you became friends with." Manius points out, before grinning, "But I guess both are equally important, huh?"
Hunk smiles, "It was a good day."
Lance scoffs, "Yeah, I mean concussion aside it was pretty great." He smirks at Hunk, "Bet you're glad I walked on that wall, huh?"
Hunk shoots him a look.
Dessert goes well, and opening presents does, too. Lance isn't on top of his phone during it, much more polite with Hunk's family than his own. Around seven they say goodnight to each other, Lance getting hugs from the whole family before he heads off to his own.
The rest of the weekend is pretty uneventful. He helps his dad stack firewood here and there, and makes dinners with his mother.
New years eve both families join together at the McClain home (they switch that each year as well), and once again Lance gets drunk and texts Keith. This time, though, Keith only answers him a few times, informing him he was in the middle of a Mario Kart game with his brother, Pidge, and her brother.
Hunk's honestly relieved because the boy is much more drunk this time and who knows what stupid shit he would have said. He wants them to get together, but he wants them to do it right.
The time to leave comes too soon, and Hunk finds himself teary eyed when he hugs his crying mother and father goodbye. He meets up with Lance at the car, who is also a mess, and the two just share a sad smile.
"At least you get to have your date with Shay." Lance offers and Hunk nods.
"We get to go back to Keith and Pidge, too, out New York family."
His best friend laughs a little, "Yeah, our dysfunctional little family."
Hunk nods, a calm smile on his face as Lance drives them away. Florida will always be home to him, but nowadays, with friends waiting for them in New York, their little apartment there is starting to feel like home, too.
It takes a few days, but once they get home both boys run upstairs with their luggage and collapse on their couches, sighing in relief.
"Hotels have nothing on this." Hunk says happily and Lance laughs a little.
"We were in a motel, Hunk. Best brush up on that unless you want Keith to lose his shit."
He looks over to Lance and smirks, "Brushing up on the difference for your crush ? How considerate of you."
"He's not my crush, Hunk." Lance groans and Hunk just rolls his eyes.
"How long are you gonna say that, Lance? Denial has its limits, bro."
"It's not denial, Hunk. Jesus."
The two stay silent for a few minutes, each laying on a different couch and staring up at the ceiling, until Lance startles him by speaking up.
"I'm having fun, Hunk." Lance admits quietly, "I like what we all have. So, no, I don't like Keith."
"You can like Keith and still have what he all have. It would still be fun."
"Nope, it wouldn't. It doesn't matter, though, because I don't like Keith."
Hunk groans, rolling over on the couch to look at the TV, "Alright, fine, you don't like Keith." As if on cue, Lance's phone goes off and Hunk looks over to him with a smirk, "Who's texting you?"
Lance pouts, looking down at his phone, "It's Keith telling me they will be coming tomorrow at 3."
"Telling you, huh?" Hunk smirks and Lance huffs.
"Yes, Hunk, just drop it." He grumbles, staring at his phone as he responds.
"Alright, fine, I'll drop it." Hunk relents.
For today.
A/N: It's Christmas in June! I want literally all of the food I listed on here. ALL. OF. IT.
HOW. FUCKING. AMAZING. WAS THAT NEW EPISODE OF BUZZFEED UNSOLVED?
VERY. VERY AMAZING.