Work Text:
December 2, 2018
Matt considered himself a semi-wholesome person. He really did. But there was a point where that wholesomeness stopped, and that point was here; barely to the end of his shift acting as a mall Santa. It had nothing to do with the kids themselves, they were very cute and sweet, he was just tired. His main drive for doing this was his daughter, Amethyst. She had been the one to suggest it since it was considered volunteer work, meaning hours that counted to her honor society goal; and promoting her babysitting gig.
He was weak for his daughter, he really was.
But right now he was exhausted. If it weren’t for the continuous line of slightly annoyed parents and rambunctious children, he would’ve passed out by now.
Just as he was about to tell Amethyst to put up the five-minute break sign, a little boy with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes stepped forward shyly. Matt glanced behind him, he was the last kid. His shift was five minutes from over, he could do this. The man behind him gave him a reassuring shoulder pat and a smile. “It’s okay, go on.”
Matt did a double take looking over the kid’s dad. This man has muscles for days and- holy shit is that eyeliner?! His eyes were a stormy grey, and a scar lay across the bridge of his nose. His hair was jet black, save for the white tuft in the front. His cheeks burned, hopefully invisible through the makeup Amethyst had dabbed on earlier to make him look a tad older. Then, he noticed, this man was missing an arm. An accident maybe? Oh wait, he’s wearing dog tags. He must be a veteran...
The little boy came forward, and Matt helped onto his knee. He looked over to his dad, who gave him a nod, and then he turned back to Matt. “Hi Santa,” he said quietly.
“Hello there! What’s your name?”
The boy grinned. “My name is Jeremy. I just turned six!” he said proudly with a grin.
Matt smiled. “Well, what do you want for Christmas this year Jeremy?”
Jeremy seemed to be in deep thought for a moment or two, before glancing to his dad and back. “I want Daddy to have money for a new arm.”
“ This child is a literal angel”, Matt thought. He ruffled the kid's hair, “I’ll keep it in mind, kiddo.”
Jeremy hopped off his lap, running back his dad, who had one of Amethyst’s business cards in hand. As they walked away, Jeremy stopped. “Dad wait, I forgot a thing!” his dad raised an eyebrow.
“What did you forget?” He asked.
Jeremy jumped and reached for his backpack hanging from his father’s shoulder, pulling out a water bottle and running back to Matt. He held it up to him. “You looked thirsty, so here ya go.”
How could such a pure child possibly exist? “Thank you very much, Jeremy.”
Amethyst walked over, winking at Matt and then nodding towards Jeremy’s dad. She crouched in front of Jeremy and started talking about the North Pole, and what it was like to work for Santa Claus. Matt walked up the man, a nervous grin on his face.
The other man smiled, giving him a wave. Matt gulped, his only form of confidence kicking in; flirting, in the form of cheesy pick-up lines. “Shouldn’t you be sitting on the top of the tree, angel?”
The hot stranger chuckled. “I could say the same for you,” he replied smoothly. Matt thought he was dying, holy shit. The stranger held out his hand, “My name’s Takashi, but most of my friends call me Shiro. It’s nice to meet you.”
Matt shook his hand, hoping Shiro couldn’t see his blush up close. “I’m Matt, and the same to you.” he glanced at Shiro’s dog tags again. “Thank you for your service, by the way.”
Shiro raised an eyebrow in question, then put a hand to his chest. “Oh! I forgot I was wearing these- by the way, thank you for letting us stop by, I know you probably should be heading home soon.”
Matt pushed up his glasses. “It’s fine, your son was probably one of the sweetest kids I’ve met today. You’re doing great.”
Shiro was clearly caught off guard. “Th-thank you, you have no idea how much that means to me. Listen, I know you need to be heading home and so do we but- would you like to get together sometime for coffee?”
Matt internally squealed like a teenage girl. “Sure! My number is on the card my daughter gave you, just send me a message whenever you're free.” Containing the amount of childish glee he was feeling right now was like trying to beat fifty-fifty mode in the ultimate custom night- extremely difficult.
“Alright, I’ll see you around Matt.” Shiro smiled, “Jeremy, it’s time to go.”
Jeremy grabbed Shiro’s hand, walking away. Amethyst snickered, and Matt turned. She held up her hands in mock defense. “Either he was gonna slip away or I had to help pops,” she grinned.
“You could tell?!”
“Yeah, makeup hides acne and freckles, not the blush of a man falling helplessly in love.”
“...You’re lucky I love you, Ames,” Matt sighed, grabbing his duffel bag from behind the chair. He tossed her the keys to his car, “Can you start the car for me? I wanna get out of this costume asap.”
Amethyst nodded, and Matt headed for the restrooms to get out of that oversized, pillow stuffed red Santa suit. As he began stuffing everything back into the bag, finally in normal clothes again, he heard a small ping and looked around for his phone, locating it as it went off a second time.
New Message from 740-490-9392: Hey, it’s Shiro!
New Message from 740-490-9392: I’m free this Friday @ 6 if you want to get together then
Matt smiled, saving Shiro’s number to his phone, and managed to reply as he lugged the duffel bag to his car where Amethyst sat patiently.
To Shiro: I should be free then too, how about we meet up at Altea Cafe?
Throwing his bag in the back seat, he climbed into the driver’s seat and backed out of the parking lot, a fool’s grin on his face. After a few minutes into the drive, he glanced to his daughter who seemed content with herself.
“What’s with that smug look, little lady?” Matt teased, poking her arm as they came up to a traffic light. “You seem awfully proud of yourself.”
“Of course I am, I just scored my awesome geeky dad a date with the cutest guy he’s ever seen.”
“He’s not just cute Ames, he’s a god,” Matt began, pushing his foot against the gas pedal before continuing, “You can’t tell me you didn’t see those muscles, and my god those eyes, and the eyeliner was so perfect-”
“I know, Dad, I know. Your eyes were as big as dinner plates when you saw him, it was pretty obvious. That’s why I distracted...what was his name? Jerry?”
“Jeremy, kiddo. And I was that obvious? Jesus.” Matt sighed, pulling into the driveway. “By the way, I need some help with a project for a certain someone’s Christmas present.”
“It’s for Shiro, isn’t it?”
Matt sighed, his heart and mind determined to make Jeremy’s wish for Shiro to come true. “Yeah, it is.”
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December 15, 2018
Matt waited excitedly, foot tapping rhythmically on the floor as he waited for Shiro. He sat at a table closest to the frosted window, throwing glances out the window. Suddenly,a tuft of white hair peeked out from underneath a pale blue beanie as it passed the cafe window, catching Matt’s eye. Shiro caught his gaze, waved excitedly and grinned. Matt’s eyes followed Shiro as he entered the cafe, standing up to greet him.
“H-hey Shiro!” Matt greeted, then gestured to the counter. “Why don’t we grab our drinks?”
Shiro smiled, “Sure, I’ll pay.”
“No no, I got it,” Matt assured with a wink, eyes glued to the menu of festive themed drinks. Why did all of them sound so good? For Christ’s sake you’ve got drinks like “ white chocolate peppermint affogato” and “Christmas cookie cappuccino” . Granted he had no idea what the word affogato meant, but that still sounded amazing. After placing their orders, the two men sat back down at their table. Once their drinks came, conversation seemed to pick up. Shiro raved about his son, and his two younger cousins. Apparently, Shiro had been teaching them gymnastics for years and because of him, they ran their own fitness center. Jeremy was obsessed with science, proudly showing Shiro all of his drawings and high marked papers.
The longer the date went on, the more Matt could feel his attraction for Shiro bubbling inside him. Matt had already began to extol his daughter, and how they ended up as a mall Santa and elf.
“I swear, Ames is starting to take after my sister. Which, honestly isn’t a bad thing, my sister is extremely intelligent; but if Amethyst is catching onto those trolling skills, I’m in danger.” Matt chuckled, looking down at his long empty mug.
Shiro snickered, his eyes sparkling just so, and Matt swore his heart was going to explode. He’d definitely been blessed by the stars, given the chance to go on a date with someone who was clearly an angel.
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December 21, 2018
Matt beamed, watching the skaters in the square glide with such ease. Shiro offered him a hand up. Taking his hand, Matt nearly fell as he tried to balance himself. “Remind me why we agreed this was a good idea?” he inquired, managing a firm grip on one wall with his other hand holding Shiro’s.
“I won’t let you fall, trust me. And if I do, I’ll let you get revenge.” Shiro sniggered, giving Matt’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Shiro led him into the square with the other skaters, showing him how to keep himself balanced. “Think of it like being on roller blades, it’s more or less the same.”
Matt nodded, and hours later, he was skating mostly on his own, yet refusing to let go of Shiro’s hand. His mind burned with a question he desperately wanted to ask, but was afraid of seeming to forward. The question of “Do you want to spend Christmas with me?” was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t get it out.
As he pondered his choices that they were being slowly ushered out by a very tired safety management team. Matt unlaced his skates, heart racing. This was his only opportunity to ask, he had to take this chance before it slipped away!
Matt handed the borrowed pair of skates to Shiro, smiling sheepishly. “Hey, Shiro? Can I ask you something?”
“Fire away, you can ask me anything.” Shiro replied.
Matt took a deep breath. “You can do this Holt, for fuck’s sake you work with deadly chemicals on a daily basis, with zero problems. You have a plan to enact dammit!” he thought, “Shiro, do you wanna spend Christmas with me and Ames? It would be fun for her too, she loves watching Jeremy whenever we go out so it’s a win-win situation.”
“I’d love to! Jeremy is going to be so excited!” Shiro’s smile made Matt’s heart skip a beat.
“I-I’ll see you then! How does five thirty sound?”
“Five thirty is good,” Shiro replied, waving as he walked towards his car.
Matt watched Shiro’s car for a moment as he drove away, and once it was out of sight, he whispered a triumphant “Yes!” to himself.
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December 25, 2018- Christmas Day
Matt stared in awe at what Shiro had given him. He had managed to find Matt a copy of the movie script version of the first “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, in hardback. “Shiro this is amazing! Thank you!”
“You’re very welcome, Matt.” Shiro turned to his son across the room, “Jeremy, can you pick the next present to hand out?”
The little boy nodded enthusiastically, picking up an average sized envelope, reading out the recipient. “To Shiro, from Santa!”
Matt could tell Shiro was extremely confused, glancing sideways at Matt in hopes of an answer. “Open it, open it!” Jeremy exclaimed excitedly, climbing back onto the couch.
Shiro tore open the envelope, pulling out a folded piece of paper.
Matt was quite proud of himself. With a bit of help from Amethyst - who was looking at Shiro expectantly as he unfolded the letter - and the power of Google Docs, Matt had written a letter from “Santa”, in curly red cursive. He had never forgotten Jeremy’s request when he sat on Matt’s lap.
“Read it out loud.”Amethyst suggested.
Shiro nodded, “Dear Shiro, When your son visited me, he asked for something for you rather than himself. After some talking with Matthew, we managed to find a solution. Inside this envelope is a check for five hundred thousand dollars” Shiro’s voice cracked, he took a deep breath, and continued, “For a new thought controlled prosthetic with less hassle, touch sensors, and extra cash to cover physical therapy so you can get used to your new arm.”
Matt couldn’t help but smile as Shiro lifted his focus from the letter, to Jeremy, and then to Matt. He opened his mouth, then closed it, Matt could tell he was searching for a way to respond. Shiro pulled Matt as close to him as he could, hugging him tight. “Thank you so, so much.” Shiro whispered, and Matt felt a tear drop fall onto his shoulder. He leaned back a little, cupping Shiro’s face in his hands, and wiping a stray tear away. Shiro surged forward, kissing Matt softly but with something behind it. Raw emotion, gratefulness and joy behind that kiss. Matt kissed back, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips.
Amethyst whooped in the background, with Jeremy screaming something along the lines of “Thank you Santa!”. When Shiro pulled back, Matt knew he’d gotten his own
Christmas miracle. He wouldn’t have asked for anything else.