Cosplay Husband

19. All I Want for Christmas

ARMIN: The scissors glided through the wrapping paper like a hot knife through butter.

I placed Eren's present in the center of the paper and folded the edges up. I taped it together and slapped a ribbon on it.

I wasn't sure if Eren would even like it; it was just a new speaker and a new pair of headphones since his were falling apart at the seams.

I started to regret not going out and buying something for him sooner.

Bean jumped onto my desk and swatted at the present. I held it out of her reach. "No, that's not yours."

I flicked a cat toy at her and she chased it across the room.

Waiting for six pm to come was a long and painful task. I decided to draw to pass the time, but my stomach was fluttering.

Finally the clock struck six and I jumped up from my chair eagerly. I bid my grandpa goodbye and jumped into my car to drive to Eren's.

Eren opened the door and the sight of him made my heart feel weightless.

"Come on in," he gestured.

"Thanks for inviting me," I said. I had forgotten to bring a host gift this time, but I figured Eren's Christmas present counted.

Eren's father's family had all arrived and we're chatting in the living room.

The room felt empty, and I remembered Eren's mom had passed.

"Is this the young man who came to Carla's funeral?" One of his aunts asked.

"The same, Aunt Gilda," Eren said. "Aunt Gilda, this is Armin."

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am." I said.

"Eren, is this your girlfriend?"

I turned my head to face another elderly woman. This one wore gold-rimmed glasses with inch-thick lenses.

"Aunt Brunhild, Armin is a boy." Eren corrected her. He whispered in my ear, "Aunt Brunhild lost her sight twenty years ago."

I nodded.

"Eren, you're not like one of those gays are you?" Some man sitting in an armchair quipped gruffly.

"No Uncle Randall, he's just my best friend. He doesn't have a lot of friends so I let him come over." Eren sighed.

"Hey!" I cried instinctively, but at least I hoped it was convincing.

"Good. No nephew of mine will be one of those gays." Eren's uncle replied.

"Neither will no son of mine be," Eren's dad chimed in from the doorway.

His gaze shifted to me, and I felt chills trip down my spine. I remembered watching him beat Eren outside. Eren hadn't looked me in the eye during it.

"The gays are taking over this county," Randall said, "pretty soon there won't be any of us left."

I swallowed thickly and hugged his present to my chest. I didn't like this kind of talk.

"Uncle Randall, I don't think gay people will ever outnumber us." Eren said.

"Hmph."

"Eren, don't be sticking your nose in the discussions of adults." Mr. Jäeger said.

"Dad I--" Eren began, but was interrupted by another man.

"Oh come now, Grisha, the boy's eighteen," he chided.

"Don't tell me how to discipline my child, Claud." Mr. Jäeger threatened.

"But that's just it, Grisha; Eren isn't a child, he's an adult." The Claud guy argued.

"Umm, anyway..." Eren grabbed my sleeve and dragged me back to his room, shutting the door.

"Is this what Christmas is normally like?" I asked, placing his present on his bed. I rubbed my wrists, as he had grabbed them too roughly.

"Yeah but they'll be fine," Eren assured me. He took my wrist, examining it. He squinted at the series of little white marks, and my heartbeat sped up. I guess I forgot to tell him about those... "Armin...did you used to cut yourself?"

"Back in middle school, yeah," I admitted, "but I stopped."

He brought my wrists to his lips and kissed them. "Please don't start again."

"I won't," I promised, "I lost too much blood once so I'm scared to ever do it again."

He let my wrists down gently and gazed at me. "Oh, I guess I should give you your present."

He rummaged around behind his bed, pulling out a sloppily-wrapped present.

"Sorry it's so badly wrapped; I suck at wrapping. Mom used to make it look so easy." He said, handing it to me.

"It's fine, but you didn't have to get me anything," I said.

"Yeah I did," he shrugged.

I smiled and opened up the package. Under the wrappings was a boxed figurine of Marlin Rater  from Giant Menace. The figure was posed with his legs bent in mid-jump, his guns above his head. I hadn't seen this figurine before.

"Eren, this is awesome! Thank you!" I placed the box on his bed and threw my arms around him.

"Took me forever to find it," he laughed lightly, "and you're welcome."

"Now you open mine." I shoved it at him.

He carefully peeled away the paper and found the speaker and headphones.

"Holy shit I needed these so badly," Eren gasped, "thank you so much."

"You're welcome." 

"Let's plug this baby in." Eren grinned.

"It's Bluetooth," I told him.

"Even better."

Eren dug his phone out of his pocket and hooked it up to the Bluetooth.

"What do you want to listen to?" He asked.

"I wanna dance," I mumbled, "I wanna teach you how to waltz."

Eren gave me a weird look. "I can't dance; I'm dance-impaired."

"I can teach you," I said, "but I'll end up being the follow."

I put on a slow song I knew and turned the volume up.

"Okay, so the lead--that's you--has these steps." I showed him how they were supposed to go. His steps were shaky and reluctant, but he had an idea of how to do it.

"Good, okay, so I just do the opposite of what you do. Here's the ballroom stance." I placed his hand on my waist and my hand on his arm. Then I pressed his hand to mine.

We shuffled around for only until the song was over, but I liked being close to him. At the end of the song, Eren leaned over and kissed me.

"Merry Christmas, Armin." He murmured.

"Merry Christmas, Eren." I repeated.