Dislcaimer: No rights, no money.

A/N: Hi guys!

Aw man, if I'd been a week sooner I could have presented you a ridiculous story here for April fool's day... but I missed it. Obviously. It's a shame... but oh well! Are you prepared to go about a time travel? We are going back to December to do Christmas shopping with Tyson and Kai. :)

Before we set off, many thanks to FlamingIce94, James Birdsong, Random Fan and Katya92 and Vampiress23, Charliee Keely Warmer and Taisiya-chan for your kind words, your favs and/or follows. I love this story, but without your support I might have given up on it already. So big thanks!

Now, let's buckel up and see how their Chirstmas shopping goes!

Chapter 18

Wrapped up

"Good morning."

With a yelp Tyson dropped the glass of orange juice he'd just picked up. It remained in one piece, but he'd still managed to spill orange juice over the table, two of the chairs, his pants and the floor.

"Oh, g-good morning Kai," Tyson stammered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh no worries, no worries. Just me being too focused on my breakfast," Tyson said and laughed sheepishly.

He grabbed sponge from the sink and began to clean up the mess he'd made while silently cursing himself. He continued right where he had left off yesterday. Ever since he had woken with his head on Kai's shoulder Tyson had not been able to get his shit together. He'd kept blushing, stuttering, dropping one thing and tripping over the next whenever Kai had been near. He really was worse than a middle school girl! Finally, Tyson had surrendered and retired to bed. There, he had been going back and forth between staring at the ceiling with a silly grin, stroking his cheek where he'd rested against Kai's shoulder and wildly tossing around cursing himself for not having his emotions in check. When and how he'd eventually fallen asleep Tyson could not remember.

He'd promised his imagine in the mirror earlier he'd do better today. For Kai! And yet here he was, being a love-sick idiot once again.

With a fluttering heart Tyson glanced over to Kai. Kai had begun to make a cup of coffee and, as he did, hummed a little melody. So at least Kai hadn't noticed anything. Tyson took a deep breath. He would keep it together from now on. For Kai! Nodding to himself, Tyson picked up the empty glass and began cleaning up around it.

"Hey Kai, do you wanna leave for the mall after breakfast?" he asked.

Tyson said breakfast, but most people would have probably referred to it as lunch this time of day - it was a quarter to twelve.

"Sure. Do you have your phone on you? I promised Tala to tell him when we leave so they can meet us there."

With a loud thud Tyson's glass fell for the second time today, but as it was already empty there was no further mess made. Tyson's head shot up.

"They?"

Kai sat down with his coffee cup and nodded.

"The team."

"Bryan, too?" Tyson asked.

"Um I think so. Why?"

Tyson rinsed the sponge in the sink, then dried off his hands and went to sit opposite Kai.

"No reason," he murmured.

Tyson shoved a spoonful of his chocolate cereal into his mouth. It had an undeniable hint of orange. He considered the news. Bryan sure was a handful. With Tala around this shouldn't be too bad though, right? It would definitely keep Tyson's mind distracted too. And the Blitzkrieg Boys could help carry the shoppings and keep Kai from straining his still recovering body. Maybe this was a good thing.

An hour and a half later Tyson no longer thought it was a good thing. The mall - crowded, stuffy and hot - was unpleasant as it was. With Bryan around, it was hell. The first shop they had gotten kicked out off after Bryan had jumped at who he had thought to be Spencer and exploded a confetti canon in his face. That person had turned out to be not Spencer, but the shop manager. He hadn't been pleased, to say the least. The second shop they left after Bryan had told a young boy waiting at the checkout that it would save him a lot of time and money if he just stole the thing. The boy's mother, right next to Bryan, had been about as pleased as the shop manager earlier.

Now Tyson was pushing through the masses in the third shop, together with Kai and Spencer. Not that Tyson was enjoying himself, but at least Tala had forbidden Bryan from entering the shop and stayed outside with him to keep an eye on his teammate. After what seemed like eternity, they had together all the items on their list and joined the immense queue at the checkout. Tyson had never seen a queue this long.

"I can't even see the end of this queue," he muttered.

"I can," said Spencer, who was at least a head taller than everybody else. "It is very far away."

For some reason he didn't sound annoyed at all - almost amused. Tyson groaned. He didn't see watt could possibly be amusing about this.

"Remind me never to go shopping this close to Christmas again."

"You can wait outside if you like. I can take care of this," Kai offered.

Tyson looked from Kai's friendly smile to his hand held out to take his shopping. A warm, bubbly feeling spread through him. How sweet he was. How very, very sweet.

He smiled back.

"Thanks but this was my idea, so I'll-..."

Before Tyson could say he'd have to just suck it up, the apparently restless crowd behind him pushed forward and he stumbled right past Kai's outstretched hand and into his arms. He felt Kai's arms instinctively close around him. They would surely have tumbled to the floor together, if Spencer hadn't been standing close to Kai. He caught both of them mid-fall and with ease put them back on their feet. The blonde giant then turned around to the group of culprits to have a friendly chat about the etiquette of queueing. Meanwhile Tyson and Kai stood frozen in their awkward embrace. Nose to nose they stared at each other, eyes wide. Tyson was so close, he could see his own reflection in Kai's eyes. Close enough he could feel Kai's breath on his skin. Close enough to once more catch Kai's scent. His mind had gone completely blank. The crowd around them continued to hustle and bustle, but he didn't notice. There was only Kai. Only those beautiful crimson eyes, those arms wrapped firmly around him, that body warm against his.

Until, "Hey, what's up with you, did you get hurt?"

Spencer was back. It was as if someone had suddenly turned up the volume again. Voices were coming from everywhere around them, Christmas music was blasting from the speakers, the tills at the check-out were beeping loudly. Tyson and Kai jerked apart and both of them started to frantically straighten their clothes and look around for anything they might have dropped.

"Guess not," Spencer said cheerfully.

Tyson cleared his throat.

"Thanks," he murmured.

To whom he didn't know. He didn't care either. His mind was preoccupied with this one thought: Kai had caught him. He had wrapped both arms around him and pulled him close to protect him from the fall.

Oh god, how was he ever going to get through the rest of the day.

"About time! We were beginning to think you've decided to celebrate Christmas in there," Tala snarled as they finally stepped out of the store.

"I'm hungry," Bryan said.

Tyson didn't know what to do with that comment, so he ignored Bryan and answered Tala instead, "Sorry, it was madness in there."

"Did you at least get everything?"

Tyson nodded.

"Only the tree left on our list."

"I'm hungry," Bryan said again.

"I heard you the first time," Tala said.

He seemed very annoyed.

"I know I am a person with many gifts, but mind-reading ain't one of them," Bryan said.

Tala's expression become - if possible - even more annoyed.

"I saw a Burger place next to the tree farm. We can go there after we've picked out a tree," Spencer suggested quickly.

Tyson felt both sorry and admiration for him. Sorry, because such a nice guy had to put up with those two all the time, and admiration because he did so in such a calm and collected manner. Practically a saint.

They made their way to the tree farm outside the mall and as they strolled through rows and rows of Christmas trees, Tyson began to wonder if maybe they should have fed Bryan before coming here after all. Bryan was in an exceptionally foul mood. He 'accidentally' rammed his shoulder against one tree, which fell and like domino took three more trees with it, stuck his gum at the top of another and decorated a third with candy wrappers.

"Why don't you and Kai pick out a tree and we'll wait at the wrapping station," Tala said.

A vein on his forehead was throbbing visibly and Tyson did not want to be in Bryan shoes right now. As a matter of fact, he didn't even want to be close enough to witness what was about to happen.

"Great idea. Let's go, Kai!" he quickly said and shoved Kai into the next aisle.

The angry Russian conversation behind them grew quieter and quieter as they walked down the aisle until they finally were out of earshot. Tyson glanced around. Only trees. And Kai.

The image of Kai's face, nose to nose with his own, flashed in front of his inner eye and Tyson blushed. He turned away his face and pretended to examine the trees nearby, so Kai couldn't see his flushed cheeks. Darn it.

"Err... Do you see one you like?" he asked.

He shot a glance to Kai. Kai turned his head left and right, scanning the trees of various shapes and sizes.

"So many..." he murmured.

"Tyson, how old am I?" Kai then asked.

"How old? Eighteen. Unless you lied about your birthday," Tyson said. "Why?"

Kai didn't answer. Instead, he slowly walked along the line of trees, counting them off.

"... Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen." He stopped and pointed at one tree. "Let's take this one!"

Tyson laughed.

"Alright, let's take that one then."

He walked over and took a closer look at their choice.

"Hey this one is actually pretty nice!" he said and grinned at Kai.

Kai smiled back.

"If it had been ugly we could have gone with your age."

"That would have been cheating."

"Would you have bought an ugly tree?"

"... Fair enough. Okay, let's get this baby wrapped up so we can go get Bryan something to eat. I wouldn't mind a nice burger either."

Together they picked the tree up and carefully made their way back to the wrapping area.

As they approached they once more heard loud, angry voices that were talking in quick Russian. Tyson recognized them right as Tala's and Bryan's voices.

"Boy, Bryan doesn't do hungry well, does he," Tyson said.

"I didn't catch everything, but it seems he swapped some tags and created a bit of chaos," Kai said.

"Oh that's right, you speak Russian. So weird, it totally slipped my mind."

"I wasn't aware either."

"Amnesia sucks."

"Hn."

They had now reached the wrapping area. Just in time to see Tala launch himself at Bryan, fling him around and shove him head first through the tree wrapping machine. Bryan resurfaced at the other end of the tube, tightly wrapped in a white net, yelling and wiggling. With an innocent smile Spencer pulled Bryan out of the tube, cut and tied the net at the bottom end and threw the still yelling Bryan over his shoulder. He then spotted Tyson and Kai, standing there gob smacked with their tree and waved.

"Did you find a nice tree?" he called.

Tyson's jaw dropped. How could he ask that as if he weren't carrying a squirming and cussing Bryan on his shoulder? A shiver ran down his spine. Maybe Spencer wasn't a saint after all...

"I-... We-..." Tyson's voice trailed off.

Tala walked over to them and took the tree off their hands.

"Here, let me wrap this for you. It's surprisingly fun!"

Under the incredulous stares of Tyson and Kai, Tala wrapped the tree like he had Bryan moments before. He then picked it up and gestured for them to follow.

Outside, Tala set down the tree and leaned forward so he had a clear view of Bryan's face.

"Now, shall we go for some burgers and fries?" he asked with a wide grin.

"How-..." Kai began.

"Oh the holes are big enough to feed him fries through, don't you think," Spencer chimed.

Tyson tried to intervene, "I really don't think we should-..."

"We can send you guys home in a cab, if you want," Tala interrupted. With a glance at the tree he added, "A big one."

"Yeah I don't think we want to get involved in internal Blitzkrieg affairs," Tyson murmured. "Plus we have a tree to decorate."

Kai didn't object.

And so an hour later they stood in the living room amidst their shoppings and admired the (still naked) tree.

"Woah. You picked out such a great tree, Kai. Honestly."

"I did, didn't I?"

He smiled at the tree, then picked up a red Christmas tree ball. Tyson's heart did a familiar leap and he quickly turned away and put on a Christmas playlist. The first song he'd never heard before. What was it they were singing anyway? Tyson had no clue, but he was pretty certain it was French. Hilary's lessons had done that much for him, at least. He liked the melody, but since he didn't understand a word, Tyson kept to humming along.

He was about to reach for a Christmas ornament himself when there was the sound of shattering glass. Tyson's head jerked up. The shattered Christmas ball lay at Kai's feet. Kai himself was crouched down, his hand pressed against his head.

"Kai!"

Tyson dashed forwards. He kneeled down beside Kai, careful to avoid the shards of glass, and placed a hand on Kai's back.

"Kai, what's wrong?"

Kai kept rubbing his temples. It seemed like forever until he finally spoke.

"I remember this song."

A/N: Ou, cliffhanger? Hey good news: the next chapter is already written! And it's super long - would you rather want it in one piece or two parts? Let me know which you prefer, and what you liked or didn't like about this. Have a fabulous day! ~Bird