new phone who dis || mairi (COMPLETED)

45. happy. (FIN)

Kairi was ever so slowly woken by someone running a hand through his hair. He didn't have to open his eyes to know it was Mattia, so he cuddled his head into his boyfriend's thigh, trying to block out the sun.

Mattia had stayed the night on Christmas Eve after a long conversation with his parents and several promises to pop in so he could spend at least a little bit of Christmas day with him, but they had eventually agreed as all the boys were coming over.

"C'mon, bubs," he murmured. His deep, gravelly morning voice just made Kairi want to stay in bed with him longer. "Everyone's here and Maiya told me to tell you that you better wake up and open presents with her before she wakes you up herself. And I'm guessing it involves a bucket of water."

"No," Kairi managed to mumble, blindly reaching his arm up to grab Mattia's hoodie and yanking him down onto the bed. "Sleep."

Mattia tried to protest, but fell silent when Kairi wrapped his arms around the other and buried his face into his chest, relaxing into him. He sighed, accepting his fate, and slumped into the embrace, his eyes fluttering shut.

-

"I told you we couldn't trust Mattia to wake him up," he distantly heard someone say. The next thing he knew, the blankets were ripped off him, the morning December chill immediately biting into him. He shivered and pulled Kairi even closer.

"Nope! None of that!" Alvaro complained, trying to pry Mattia's arm from Kairi. It didn't do much until Alvaro decided to dig his nails in.

"Ow, fine! I'm up!" He dragged himself into a sitting position, rubbing his arm. He opened his eyes and saw Alvaro approach the borderline-asleep Kairi, and he swatted him away.

"Be nice," he warned, "it's Christmas."

"You had your chance to be nice," Alvaro sniped back. "Look where that got us. Now come open presents!"

He stood up and offered a hand to Kairi, pulling him up into a quick hug. Alvaro left the room with another thinly veiled threat, but neither of them paid any mind to him.

"Merry Christmas, Kai," Mattia pecked his cheek and dragged the boy downstairs, their hands interlocked.

-

Kairi locked the door behind him and made his way over to the bathroom cabinet. He brushed his teeth, then got out a single pill from his antidepressant bottle. He had been taking them for around three months now, and although it had taken a while for much to change, he honestly felt much better. Instead of the usual happy period of two weeks before he felt tired and numb again, so far he'd only felt like the latter once - and that was just after he had started taking them and kept forgetting.

It wasn't that they made him happier. It was more that he could actually feel happy instead of the persistent hollow ache he had carried for so long. Kairi had tried to explain it to Mattia once, and after a couple minutes realised that the reason he wasn't understanding was because that wasn't the norm for him. Mattia didn't have to fill day-to-day life with distractions to stop the feeling from overwhelming him. He didn't have to set three alarms because otherwise the exhaustion would convince him it wasn't worth getting up today. He didn't have to carry around the weight of never being enough, always there, nagging at the back of his skull.

And now, finally, Kairi didn't have to either.

He smiled to himself at the thought of everyone outside - his friends and family - waiting for him just so they could open presents together. A year ago he wouldn't have been able to feel the excitement he was now. A year ago he'd have to plaster on a drained smile, rather than fight off the genuine one that he wore now.