A True Hero

Chapter 30

A lil' christmas chapter for your day

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Micah's pov : 22 years old
Christmas

Laughter floated throughout the room as everyone sat on couches and the floor around the table. I sat with my arm around my husband, who had a cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Kai was on the floor with Alexi and Aiko, while my parents sat on the other couch.

On the loveseat was Niko and Akito, who was sitting in their lap, facing them, with his head on their shoulder. A blanket was draped over the both of them and Akito seemed to be half asleep. I had quickly figured out that he loved to cuddle, and Niko was more than happy to give said cuddles.

"Okay, who's ready for presents?" Dad stood and Alexi cheered as Pops moved the table out of the way. I unwrapped my arm from Titus to help with presents and soon they were all passed out.

"On three?" Everyone nodded in agreement with Pops and readied to open their first present.

"One-"

"Two-"

"Three!"

The sound of paper tearing was loud throughout the room as Alexi wasted no time unwrapping her gift and the adults possibly doing the same. My first one was from Kai. It was a travel mug and I snorted at what was on it. In rainbow letters were the words,

Move, I'm gay

I heard Titus start laughing and looked over to see he had a matching one. We both shook our heads and I nodded to Kai as I calmed down.

"That was a good one. I like it actually. I don't know if it was supposed to be a gag gift or not." I took the rest of the wrapping off and realized it was glittery as well.

"Kind of, but also not." She shrugged, smiling, and the unwrapping continued. At some point I looked over to see Akito looking down at a soft, stuffed fox in his lap. He gave it a squeeze before he looked up to Niko with a bright smile and whispered a thank you while pulling it to his chest. I smiled at the interaction before another gift was placed in my lap by Titus.

"Here." He smiled as I grabbed it and flipped it around. It was big and flat, and I scrunched my face in confusion before tearing at the paper.

It was a picture frame and there were multiple places to put pictures. For a few seconds I didn't know what it was before realizing it was almost set up like a family tree. Single pictures of me and Titus were in two of the spots and one of us together just below them.

As I looked along I realised there were specific spots for pets, grandparents, and children. I'd have to get a picture of Pops and Dad for the grandparent spots. I barely noticed the tears on my face until Titus was wiping them away.

"Do you like it?" He was smiling widely and I nodded, pulling him in for a hug and squeezing him tightly to my chest. "We'll get your parents and...we can fill in the rest later?" He whispered. I nodded again and let him go, wiping my face clean of tears.

~

When we left later that night, most people were finishing cleaning up all the paper while Kai stood at the sink washing mugs of hot chocolate. Akito and Alexi were both passed out on the couches, the redhead hugging his stuffed fox to his chest as he slept.

Once we had brought all of the gifts into our apartment, me and Titus sat on the couch to do our own gift exchange. It was only a few things, but that was ok.

"My first one." I pulled a smaller box from behind my back and Titus took it, holding it in the palm of his hand. Slowly, he unwrapped the gift and smiled wider at the Velvet box under the paper.

"Aww, are you proposing for a second time?" He joked as he tossed the paper aside and I laughed. Opening the lid, he gasped and pulled the matching wedding rings out.

"You mentioned you wanted us to have matching rings, so..." I trailed off with a shrug. "Do You like them?" Titus nodded quickly.

"I love them!" He slipped his current ring off and I did the same with mine. I took his ring from him and slid it on his finger, allowing him to take my hand and put mine on.

"See? Now we match." I held our left hands together and he nodded, leaning into me. "Okay, what's yours?"

The gift exchange lasted a little while longer before Titus handed me his last gift. It was a bigger box, but it was light for the size it was. I shook it around and heard things moving, and a few bells.

Taking the lid off, I saw a few balls with bells in them, a stick with a feather on a string connected to it, and a few other things. Cat toys. At the bottom of the box was a picture of a kitten, bright blue eyes looking into the camera. Its fur was white with brown spots from what I could see.

"Ti'..?" I raised a brow and looked up to him trying to hold back a smile. He stood quickly.

"Stay here." He walked down the hall quickly and I laughed.

"Titus!?" I only laughed harder as he walked out of the spare room with a tiny ball of fur in his arms. "A cat!?" He nodded and set the small kitten in my lap before sitting. It was the same kitten in the picture and I gently picked it up, not noticing how small it really was until I realised it could fit in the palm of my hand.

"He's eight weeks old. Both of his parents were dwarf cats so he most likely is too." He scratched the back of the kitty's ear. "I was thinking we name him Chip. 'Cause he looks like he has chocolate chips all over him."

"I like Chip." I smiled brightly as Chip started to play with my hand, batting at it and chewing on my fingers. "It's fitting." I looked down at the picture and hummed. "This is for the picture frame, isn't it?" Titus nodded.

"Yeah. I thought you might put the pieces together, but I was too excited, so I went ahead and got him out." Titus took the kitten from my lap and I reached over to the table, grabbing the picture frame and adding Chips picture alongside my parents, and me and Titus. This was possibly the best christmas ever.

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I'm going to try and cap this off at 35 chapter but we'll see what happens.