The smell of cookies dispels all his inner tumours as he enters the apartment, inhaling the delicious smell that reminds him how awfully close Christmas is. A soft touch tickles the exposed skin of his ankle, swiveling around his leg as it meows up to him.
"Hello, Elfie", he cooes down at her and she meows right back at him.
Sapnap hangs his jacket up, places his shoes away from the hallway, and ushers towards the kitchen with baited anticipation. He peers his head out behind the door, and the view unravels a known feeling inside his chest.
The feeling that he loves the most, after the person who is the reason he's feeling all it. It ablazes him every time and every time he is grateful for finally feeling love again and he doesn't understand how he is the person who ends up getting loved by the little guy standing in his kitchen, the apron around his upper body full of flour but that doesn't stop there, no, the flour is all over his sleeves and trousers as well.
As he meanders towards his boyfriend, he slides his arms around his torso from behind, cornily placing his chin on his shoulder while trying to ignore the upcoming pain of his toes as he is the smaller one here.
When Karl turns his head to the side, Sapnap leans forward and places a kiss on his cheek, right atop the spot of flour. "How do you manage to get flour all over yourself?", he asks.
"What do you mean?", the brunet asks leisurely and looks down on him, his mouth shaping into an 'o' afterward.
Sapnap lets his hand slide over the once blue pullover and a small cloud of white flour resonates with the air. They both frown and step a few steps away, the taller one removing his apron while doing so.
"I'm rarely getting anything done, I can't even cook cookies", he signs and lets himself fall onto the couch.
The other one is fast to react: "Hey, hey baby. Maybe you should change first before you start to sulk over nonsense hm?".
"The couch is already dirty, I'm gonna clean it later", and he reclines back and lays wholly on the couch.
Sapnap smiles fondly down at him and brushes his hand through the brown hair of his boyfriend since his hair is full of flour as well. He kneels down on the floor, lets his chin rest on his arms as he folds them atop the couch, watching Karl turning on the side to face him.
"I bet your cookies will taste amazing", the smaller one says.
"I hope that there are gonna be a few that I can bake since I ate almost the whole dough", Karl pouts slightly.
"So what? I'm not gonna be able to taste them? Your first-ever baked cookies?".
"Stop! This sounds like I never cooked or baked something".
"Well, you kind of did. You just stood next to me or your mum and said you're helping when you're clearly not", a smug look is plastered across the face of Sapnap.
Karl just rolls his eyes. "Now I'm sure not gonna let you taste any of the cookies".
A sudden weight is pushing him down into the softness of the couch and that softness is alike to the feeling of another pair of lips on his own. Sapnap deepens the kiss, pushes the other boy further down, and earns a low hum of him. He leans back.
"The cookies taste great...I mean the dough", the smirk on his lips is adding another drop to the teasing undertone.
"Since it tastes so good why won't you get some more?", Karl's hand is sneaking behind the brown head of hair and he's pulling him down to meet him in another soothing kiss.
Karl's arms wrap completely around the back of the boy atop of him and he pulls him so close that nothing fits between them anymore. And Sapnap is fast to react as he slides his hands on the warm cheeks of the brunet and deepens the kiss. Even though they're as close as a Christmas tree with decoration there's still something that tells both of them that the decorations can be taken down any time and they're just on their own.
A lonely Christmas tree without the light and jewelry since their light got taken away.
Sapnap is the first one to delete that thought and breaks the kiss. He breathes right into the mouth of the other as he tries to get out a sentence with his lungs malfunctioning.
"We need to pack our luggage. George already has his stuff packed and that definitely means something", he says.
Karl nods dazed and blinks a few times. He swallows before: "Yeah, we should probably do that".
The smaller one smiles fondly and reaches down for the last time to place a quick peck on his lips before he stands up, holding his hand out for the brunet to take so they can go upstairs into their room and pack their things for new years.
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"Gogy! You fucker, you got taller! You're literally taller than me now, what the hell am I supposed to do?", Sapnap steps back after they stopped hugging and he looks George up and down.
"I didn't grow, you are just small", he smirks as he walks over to Karl and hugs him too.
"I missed you guys", the whisper makes all of them smile softly and Karl tightens his grip around him.
They all live in England but with the work they have to do because of university, it was impossible for anyone to find time to meet up. The many plans they made to meet up and the many booked train tickets were thrown into the bin as they got another thing to do for university.
But they're here now - together.
--------------------
Sapnap throws himself into the arms of the blond, engulfing him completely as he smiles brightly across his face.
"Dream! Fucking hell, you can't believe how much I missed you", he says.
Dream's laugh is music to his ears.
"Missed you too", and he's quiet and the smaller one can feel his head lifting up from his shoulder and the second his eyes meet with a certain pair of brown eyes, he tenses.
Sapnap gets the hint and steps aside, looping his arm around the waist of his boyfriend. And they both watch how the two boys in front of them walk towards each other, greet themselves awkwardly, and finally -- finally they feel each other again and hug.
They've broken up when George moved away to England but with their completely red cheeks, it's undeniable to say that they ever stopped loving each other.
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All of them sit together on the veranda of Dream's place and they watch the sky as they wait for the minutes to die down to announce 2022.
Karl is cuddled up in the arms of Sapnap, a blanket covering his body. The other two boys sit on the stairs, their knees touching and that's completely enough for Dream to say that 2021 got a happy ending. Because he's sitting on his veranda with the love of his life next to him. You can say that it should be sad, that they aren't together anymore but there's something unspoken between them and Dream hopes to untangle it and tangle up in bed with the brunet one day again.
"It's kind of sad without that annoying small beanie guy", Sapnap suddenly says.
Karl nods in his arms.
"I'm happy that he's finally spending time with his family though. Bet they are having a lot of fun", he mumbles.
And they count down the seconds to end that hard and yet lovely year. And they welcome the year 2022 with open arms as the fireworks alighten above them.
They quickly wish each other a happy new year and Sapnap stands up, takes Karl's hand in his own to make him follow. Dream and George watch them walk down to the street and get a better view of the firework. They watch how Karl leans down to kiss Sapnap quickly and they don't miss the way their hands intertwine as their heads turn up towards the sky again.
Their knees touch again and it runs a circuit through both of their bodies. Dream feels his head reeling, the loud noises doing nothing for his already loud head.
And he finally turns to the side to look at him. And he can't help but swallow as he finds George already looking at him. They both smile softly.
A sudden loud noise makes the brunet flinch and Dream's hand is automatically holding his within seconds. And wow, George has never seen Dream blush so much.
"Sorry, that was...", he can't finish the sentence.
The blond looks to the side again as he hears the other boy giggle slightly. And it makes him fall in love all over again and he can't do anything against the next words that roll off of his tongue: "You know, I never stopped loving you".
George stops laughing and he looks up.
"I love you", Dream says.
"I love you too", George answers.
Warmth spreads through their bodies as the brunet lets his head fall on the shoulder of the taller one. Everything is suddenly quiet -- the firework is nothing alike to their heavily beating hearts.
But suddenly-
"Fucking hell! I missed it! Aw man, I wanted to hug your asses the second stupid 2022 starts...Hey! Wait, is George taller than you Sapnap? Ha! We should do a height check, now!".
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HAPPY late NEW YEAR! & happy very late Christmas
This is very late, I started writing this around Christmas and I first wanted to upload it for Christmas and then for new year's but now it's almost February. I'm sorry :(
Still, I hope you like it! Thank you for reading this special chapter and overall, thank you so much for almost 200k reads this is so crazy and unbelievable.
I love every single one of you and I hope that you stay safe and healthy! Take care of yourself. <3