A/N: Here's the next installment of these Christmas drabbles!
Enjoy!
On Christmas when Itachi was thirteen years old, their parents had decided that it was too cold in their hometown and the four of them took a cruise. There was a pool on the ship, along with sauna, dining hall, playroom – and endless other amenities for the Uchiha boys to entertain themselves with. But Sasuke was dreaming of a white Christmas.
"You know, Mother says the screening room is showing Christmas movies all day today. We could go, eat cookies with milk, and watch Jingle all the Way." He proposed to his eight year old brother who was determinedly snuggled up beneath every blanket he could find despite the extreme heat. Itachi, to be considerate, had blasted the air conditioner in their room in order to make Sasuke's temper tantrum a bit more climactically comfortable.
"I don't wanna watch snow on television, Oniisan!" He wailed, and the lump of boy beneath the comforters squirmed and thrashed with anger. "I wanna go home!"
Itachi was shivering. It was too damn cold in here for him to be standing in his pajamas arguing with a petulant child who had stolen his blanket. Still, he could not bring himself to be outright angry at Sasuke, seeing as the idea of his Otouto being miserable on Christmas yet again was something that greatly disturbed him. This year, he was going to make it better.
"Scoot over," He warned, before lifting up a corner of Sasuke's blanket-armor and climbing inside with him. He used the pad of his thumb to wipe away at Sasuke's tears and snuggled up close, wrapping his arms around him and releasing a sigh at the resulting warmth that it provided.
"Hey," He said, several minutes later, "Do you wanna know a secret?"
Sasuke nodded meekly, eyes wide and sad – but still curious. He was always excited by new information, especially information that he knew he wasn't supposed to have.
"Shisui-Kun put mistletoe up all over the complex, because he's inviting a girl to visit today and wants her to kiss him."
Sasuke giggled, sniffling a little bit and then laughing more when Itachi made a kissy face to mock their cousin's dilemma.
"Do you think she's really gonna kiss him, Aniki?" Sasuke asked, looking less sad as their gossip continued – which had been exactly Itachi's goal.
"I think that if she's stupid enough to go for that, he's wasting his time liking her." Itachi admitted with a roll of the eye, scooting closer to Sasuke when he felt himself nearly falling off of the bed.
"But Oniisan – you've gotta kiss if you're under mistletoe!"
Itachi opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted when the door opened and his mother called out to them:
"Boys, come on! We're opening presents in the snow room." She announced, and Sasuke threw the blankets off of them and leapt up with excitement.
"There's a snow room!" He exclaimed, tugging on his jeans and Christmas sweater (He had rebelliously refused to pack any clothes for warm weather) and bounding out of the door. "C'mon, Aniki! There's gonna be snow and presents and, and … and CHRISTMAS!"
Itachi released a thoroughly relieved breath. This year – tragedy had been avoided. Thank goodness. With a soft smile, he followed.
A/N: Another piece up!
Love,
-Beloved