Far Away (BTS Hybrid Au)

A Christmas Tradition

Eun-jae's pov

Since Christmas is literally in a week, my brother's and I started decorating the house with all of the old christmas decorations that I ended up with after the passing of our parents. There was a particular tradition that my parents and I had come up with after the three of them moved to the U.S. and that was to make homemade eggnog and bake a bunch of cookies. This was the first year that I wouldn't have my parents around, the realization of never seeing them again made my heart ache. Xiumin noticed that I wasn't in the best of moods, so he decided that today would be the day that we would pick up on one of the Christmas traditions we had all done as kids. "What are we doing exactly?" Namjoon asked, rubbing his hands together. The entire household including Hoseok had been gathered outside in the back, we were standing on a bed of fresh snow, all dressed up for the cold. Xiumin turned around to face us, he had been standing in front of us. "Today, we will be chopping down a tree!" He smiled brightly, his cheeks puffing out a bit. "Chopping down a tree?" Jimin tilted his head, his ears twitching as he looked extremely confused. "Why would we chop down a perfectly good tree?" He puffed out his cheeks, his head still tilted to the side. Yoongi seemed to be just as confused as Jimin was but he was very good at hiding it from the others. We still had yet to tell anyone where Yoongi and Jimin actually came from. I mean, I haven't even told my brother's and the only person who really knows their back story is me. All three of my brother's stared at Jimin in shock, they definitely didn't expect that Jimin didn't know what chopping down a tree at Christmas meant. It seemed that even the others, well except Yoongi, were all shocked by this discovery too. "Jimin, do you really not know why people chop down perfectly good trees for Christmas?" Hoseok quipped, he looked both confused and shocked. I could see that both Yoongi and Jimin were uncomfortable with the fact that everyone had eyes on them because they didn't know why people chopped down trees.

"No..." Jimin's eyes fell to the snow under his shoes, his body language showing how uncomfortable he was with the looks he was getting. Yoongi shuffled closer to Jimin, wrapping an arm around him. "Stop staring at him like that!" Yoongi snapped, becoming defensive. "Does it matter to you that he doesn't know why?!" Yoongi growled, his ears pinned back as he became protective of Jimin. Yoongi is often aggressive and protective when people would either stare at Jimin or judge him for not knowing something, which I totally understand. I am like that with the two of them, I taught them a lot about how humans really live in the first month they were living with me. Now, they knew certain things due to being in a cage for most of their early life at the lab but that lady was not able to teach them everything. "Hey, it's okay." I stepped over to him, placing a hand on Yoongi's shoulder. I felt him relax, his shoulders slumping a bit.

"It doesn't matter that Jimin doesn't know why people cut down trees. Just fucking tell him." Yoongi snapped, glaring harshly at the others. I sighed, shaking my head and looked over at Xiumin.

"Okay!!" He exclaimed loudly, "Jimin, that's okay. It's okay that you don't know. I'll tell you." He smiled, "People usually go out and chop down trees for Christmas, as it's tradition to do so and decorate it. Then we put presents under that decorated tree, or for little Kids, Santa puts the presents under the tree on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day, that is when we wake up and open those presents." Xiumin explained, he nodded over at Chen who was holding an axe. "Does everyone go out and chop down a tree?" Jimin asked, his ears twitching as snow began to fall.

"No. Most people either buy a fake tree so they don't have to deal with the mess that Fir trees make or they buy one that has already been chopped down and transported to nearby stores who sell them." Chen chimed in, "For our family.. Mom and Dad loved the tradition of going out in the woods and finding a tree to chop down. When we were old enough, they started bringing us with them and would let us pick out a tree. Whoever found the best tree would be the one to put the Angel on the top of the tree, we were very competitive back then." Chen smiled, as I chuckled and shook my head. "Today, we're gonna be doing just that." Xiumin smiled at Jimin, who nodded his head.

"Let's go find us a tree!!!!" Chen shouted loudly, making Jungkook wince.

"Yeah!!!" Taehyung shouted, his tail whipping wildly behind him. Chen turned to look at Xiumin, the four of us siblings looking at one another competitively. "So I'm guessing our traditional tree finding competition still is happening?" I quirked an eyebrow, "Yeah, definitely." Chen smirked, "What competition?" Jin asked, looking back between me and my brother's. The others looked just as confused as Jin did, but at the moment, I was focused on one thing. And that was beating my brother's at their own game. "When Jae was finally old enough to come with us to find a tree, we created this competition. We usually paired up and whichever pair found the best tree then they would be able to pick at least one of the christmas presents from the losing team." Chen explained, "Really, you guys did that?" Jin chuckled, "Well, yeah. Our family has always been a bit crazy when it comes to competitions." Chen smirked at me, wrapping his free arm around Xiumin. "Hyung and I are going to win this. Like we always do."

"Nope, not this year. Kyungie and I will win." Kyungsoo came over to me, the two of us standing side by side.

"Ooh!! Can we be in this competition too?" Taehyung asked, looking excited.

"Sure, why not? The more, the merrier."

"Yes!!! Come on!!" I chuckled as Taehyung pulled Jungkook's hand and took off running to go find a tree, Xiumin chuckled at their enthusiasm. He nodded over to Chen, the two of them teaming up to go find a tree. Jin, Hoseok and Namjoon paired up to find one while Jimin and Yoongi stuck with Kyungsoo and I. The four of us headed out to find a really good tree and I had confidence that we would find a good one, especially since Jimin had a knack for finding good trees to climb in.

"You think we'll be able to beat Xiu and Chen this year, Oppa?" I looked at my brother, who only shook his head and smirked.

"Yeah, I have a feeling we will."

"Yeah, hell yeah, we'll win." Yoongi piped up.

"And why do you think so?" Kyungsoo turned his head to the panther hybrid, who was walking behind us. "Because Jimin here," He placed his hand on Jimin's shoulder, "is great at finding trees to climb in. It's a bit of a bad habit for him. But since he likes to climb them, he can definitely help pick out the right one." Yoongi finished, a proud smile on his face.

"Really?" Kyungsoo looked over at me, "Yep." I smiled.

"I can do it, Hyung." Jimin declared, looking more determined then ever.

"Alright then, I'll take your word for it. Let's go find us a tree."