Komaeda sighed as he laid down on the floor, under the kotatsu. Hinata had said he'd come a bit late home today, and had left food in the fridge for Komaeda to eat. He glanced at the empty bowl on the table; he should probably get up and wash it before the other came back home. But it was warm right here and he didn't feel like getting up, so he just decided to stay here. Hope was sleeping by him, snoring quietly, and he refrained from petting her. It was good to rest for a moment when your stomach was full.

Hinata was already an hour late than normally. This wasn't really anything out of normal, it was Christmas time so Hinata got held back often at work. But for Komaeda it just meant more hours alone at home.

Well, of course he had Hope. But it wasn't quite the same as human company. Hinata often told him to call someone over, like their high school friends. But Komaeda was always really hesitant to do so, feeling like it'd just be a bother. He rolled to his side to look at Hope as he gently rubbed the behind of her ears. She let out a tiny, muffled bark reflexively, opening her eyes for a second to look at him before going back to sleep.

He should visit the library someday again. He bought a lot of books already but there was just certain kind of calmness reading at the library. Hope was starting to get old enough as well to spend a couple hours alone at home without problems.

After petting Hope for a moment, Komaeda stood up. He should do the dishes now, since Hinata would most likely come back soon. Hope got up with him, staring at him as he took the bowl and following him to the kitchen like she was checking out what he was going to do. He just smiled at her as he began to wash the bowl, trying to resist her charm as she kept poking his legs for attention.

"Do you want a treat?" he asked as he put the bowl up in the cupboard, and Hope barked. Komaeda glanced out of the window to make sure Hinata wasn't there; they had made a rule that they wouldn't give treats to Hope without a good reason. But he wanted to give her something for being good company to him the whole day so he took the bag of treats from the cupboard and took a stick out of it. Hope began to jump around in excitement and Komaeda smiled at her.

"Okay, can you sit for me?" he asked as he crouched, and she quickly did as told, her tail wagging like crazy as she stared at the treat. "Paw?" Komaeda extended his hand for her, and Hope quickly lifted her paw on it. Komaeda smile again and gave the treat to her while complimenting her, and straightened his back to look at the window again. He felt his heart jump when he noticed Hinata was just opening the gate to their yard.

"Ooh, Hope, guess who's home!" he said playfully, and the dog tensed up as she tilted her head. Komaeda repeated his words couple of times just to get her hyped up, and when the door clicked she sprinted to the door.

"Woah!" Hinata's voice could be heard from the hallway almost right away, and Komaeda walked over to see the other leaning against the door to not be knocked down by Hope jumping on him. There were several bags on the floor, and Komaeda walked closer trying to see what was in them.

"Welcome back," he said and Hinata looked at him with a grin.

"Yeah, I'm back. Sorry for taking so long, the lines in the stores were a lot longer than I expected," he answered as he nodded towards the bags. Komaeda took that as permission to go snooping and he was met with lots of Christmas decorations. "Your mistletoe looks a bit lonely by itself, so I thought we could decorate the house and the tree in the backyard," Hinata continued as he hung his jacket on the coatrack, Hope running around in his legs.

Komaeda looked at all the bags: the other had certainly bought a lot. He took a box of glittery ornaments out to examine it, and Hinata walked over to him.

"I didn't really know what exactly to get so I just took everything I saw that looked nice, and it eventually developed into this huge bunch…," he explained as he took the bags from the floor, starting to carry them to the living room.

"You should have called me, I could have helped you carry them," Komaeda said as he followed the other, and Hinata just chuckled.

"I can carry them myself too, you know. It wasn't really that heavy," he said as he began to empty the bags on the kotatsu table. Komaeda almost answered him right away, to say that he just had been lonely, but he quickly held his words back. He didn't really have the courage to say things like that… Hope kept sniffing the stuff on the table, and instead of saying anything to Hinata he called her off to make sure she wouldn't take any of them.

There wasn't really a lot of decorations for inside of the house, and they managed to put them up pretty quickly, before they came back to the boxes of ornaments and lights for the tree. Komaeda went to take their jackets and shoes from the hallway while Hinata let Hope out to the backyard. She was excitedly playing in the snow by herself by the time the two of them walked out, and luckily engrossed in it enough to not notice all the things they carried outside. Just to be safe though, they decided to start with the lights.

"I can't believe I left work early and still took so long to get these," Hinata said as he unboxed some of the ornaments. Komaeda stopped putting up the lights for a moment to look at the other. Hinata was completely focused on trying to get the more difficult boxes open, and Komaeda smiled softly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise, I guess," Hinata said as he took the last box yet to be opened. Komaeda looked at all the colorful ornaments, and he felt a small tinge of nostalgia somewhere on the back of his mind, like a memory he had long forgotten about was raising its head.

"It's been a long while since I last put up Christmas decorations…," he said as he resumed putting up the lights. He saw Hinata put down the box in his hand to look at him, but he didn't look back this time. It was easier to talk about these if he didn't look at Hinata…

"We didn't put up any last year but I think that's not what you mean," Hinata said as he stood up. Komaeda nodded as Hinata joined him on putting up things on the tree. "You… you haven't put up any since your parents died?"

"I never felt like decorating by myself, so eventually I kind of stopped even thinking about them," Komaeda explained as he finished putting up the lights and went to take a box of ornaments to himself to put up. The tree was already starting to look a lot more festive and he smiled a bit at the sight. It was certainly a beautiful sight. "I guess I should have put some effort into it even if I was alone." Hinata turned to look at him from the tree with a smile on his lips.

"You were the one who put up the mistletoe though," he said cheekily and Komaeda pursed his lips. Hinata walked over to him and pushed his shoulder gently. "But you know? From now on we can put up decorations every year. We have more than enough to last us a lifetime… And even if we don't, we can always just buy more," Hinata continued softly. Komaeda looked at the other with a surprised look: he had never thought the other was planning on being with him for the rest of their lives.

And even though he still kind of didn't believe that, it made his heart swell with happiness just to know that Hinata would say that to him. He smiled hesitantly as Hinata ruffled his hair; he'd love to do nothing more than to be with Hinata forever.

"Yeah, that's true," he answered. He kind of wanted to hug the other, but they were both holding boxes and it'd be a bit difficult to do. Komaeda was already about to return to decorating the tree, when Hinata leaned against him, burying his head on Komaeda's shoulder and Komaeda responded by resting his head against the other. They managed to stay there for only few seconds, before a loud barked made both of them jump in surprise as Hope ran over to them.

"Oh man, you're covered in snow aren't you…," Hinata said as he turned to look at her. He put down his box to go wipe some of the snow off her, and Komaeda looked at them for a moment before returning to the tree.

He had never before really cared about Christmas, but being with Hinata and now Hope as well made it feel a lot warmer.

Thank you so much for reading! The next one will be up in couple days as well, I hope to see you there~