This was going to be the final chapter, but idk, I feel like I could work out an epilogue.

Enjoy!!
~xx Avanni Cinders

You were freaking out. It was eight in the morning and you were standing in front of your wardrobe, freshly showered with a bathrobe around you, staring at all of the clothes.

"I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!"

Normally you didn't care all too much about what you wore. If it was clean and you looked okay, then it was fine by you. This was different though. It was freezing outside and you were meeting Lui in less than an hour. It was just breakfast, but Gabe kept calling it a date and that made you freak out even more.

Did Lui want this to be a date? He liked you, sure, but was he thinking in his head that this was a date? Most importantly, did you want it to be a date? You almost kicked yourself for even thinking that last one. Of course you wanted it to be a date! You'd had it bad for Lui for almost as long as you had known him.

"Say that again?" Gabe yawned, coming into your bedroom. He was still in his boxers which he had worn to bed, you wanted to scold him for not knocking, before remembering that you'd left the door wide open after coming back from your shower.

"I don't have anything to wear," you repeated pitifully.

Gabe looked disbelievingly at your open wardrobe. He gestured to it with his hand.

"Clothes."

"Be quiet," you scowled.

Your brother rolled his eyes and shouldered you out of the way, going through the clothes you had hung up in there. After a few short moments, he had pulled something off its hanger, grabbed a pair of shoes and turned back around, dumping them in your arms.

"Wear this with stockings or tights, put some shorts on underneath if it's too dressy for you."

"What?" You blinked down at the clothes.

"Don't say I don't know fashion," he replied with a mysterious expression.

"Gabe?"

"It was late and some clothing fashion show thing was on TV, okay?" He said, perfectly replicating your scowl from earlier. "Get dressed before you're late."

🎄🎄🎄

"You look nice," was the first thing Lui said when he saw you.

"And therefore I have value?" Was what instantly came to your mind, and you were blurting it out before you even knew what you were saying.

Lui sweat dropped before light dawned in his eyes. "Spider-Man: Far From Home?"

"It's like I made you in a computer," you sighed, relieved.

"Deadpool," he said after a moment.

You both laughed.

"Thank you though," you smiled at him. "You look good too."

It was true, he did. It was the exact same thing he had worn to his party, but you had loved how he had looked then, so it was completely fine with you. Absently, you were wondering if somehow Gabe had been able to mastermind all of this because the two of you matched outfits perfectly. Your brother had picked out a dark blue sweater dress for you, that you'd teamed with a pair of dark stockings like he'd recommend combatting that harsh bite of the air outdoors, as well as the shorts you wore hidden beneath the dress because wearing what was essentially an oversized jumper without them in public just felt weird. In all honesty, Gabe had known exactly what he had been doing and you would definitely be going to him if you were ever in need of any fashion advice in the future.

(Made using Love Nikki: Dress Up Queen)

Lui led you inside, and you were moment caught off balance by the warm blast of air that slammed into you, a startling contrast to the cold outside. You didn't have to wait for a minute before a friendly waitress was leading the two of you to a table at the back of the room, close to a fireplace which was crackling pleasantly. She gave you both a set of menus and smiled.

"I'll be back soon to collect your orders, enjoy your date and Merry Christmas."

You stared at Lui.

Lui stared at you.

You felt your face going red. Maybe you could blame it on the heat of the fire? Still, you found yourself asking.

"Is this a date?"

"What?"

The urge to kick yourself from earlier came back with a vengeance. Why couldn't you keep your mouth shut? For a second, you seriously contemplated saying that you'd said something else, but Lui was waiting for you to answer him and you couldn't lie.

"I asked you if this was a date," you repeated boldly, clenching your hands into fists beneath the table in order to repress your nerves. Bravery wasn't the absence of fear, you tried to remember. It was the presence of fear and pushing ahead anyway.

"Do you want it to be a date?" He challenged you.

"Yes," you replied after a beat, ignoring your nerves in favour of taking a risk for something great. You liked Lui and you knew that Lui liked you too, so what was the big deal? "Do you?"

"Yes." Lui answered you without missing a beat, meeting your gaze head-on.

"Then it's a date."

A silence fell over your table. It wasn't awkward or strained, rather it was relaxed and comfortable. Lui smiled at you in a manner that was uncharacteristically soft for him. It was weird when you thought about it, the Lui you knew, your Lui, was so incredibly different from the Lui Shirosagi that everyone else knew. He had been best friends with Gabe since he moved to your school at the age of eleven, and now you were all eighteen. That was seven years. While to everyone else, Lui was aggressive, sadistic, intense and rude just to name a few, he was also intelligent, a deep thinker, skilful and ridiculously hard worker to say the least. You weren't blind of course and were perfectly aware that in his younger years, Lui had possessed those three former traits in spades, you hadn't liked him too much back then. Now that Lui was older though, he had mellowed out, and when he had returned from overseas, the cold and ruthless boy you'd known had begun to make your heartbeat just that little bit faster. He could still be those things when it came to his Blading, and unfortunately, that was the side that most people got to see, but luckily, you knew a different Lui. You knew the Lui that came outside to help you bring in the groceries so you didn't have to go into the kitchen and then back out to the car a ridiculous amount of times, the Lui that told you the right answer to a particularly hard question if he walked behind you when studying. The Lui that called you to pick up your drunk brother and took you out to breakfast for helping him clean up his post-party house.

The Lui you loved.

"Hey, Lui?" You spoke up, voice gentle, barely above a whisper. Lui still heard you.

"What's wrong Y/n."

"There was something else," you cleared your throat. "For your Secret Santa, I mean. Something I didn't give you earlier."

Lui looked curious. "What was it?"

"This," you whispered, and without further ado, you got up from your seat, pulled one over from an empty nearby table and sat down in it, now next to Lui instead of across from him and with your face burning fiercely, you leaned forward and kissed him.

The small fact that you felt like you couldn't breathe stopped you from properly enjoying your first kiss with the guy you were crazy for, that and there was also the other fact that he wasn't responding that was kind of ruining it for you. You broke away and refused to meet his eyes.

"I'm so sorry," you rushed to apologise, feeling mortified beyond belief. You silently wished for a hole to open up below you and swallow you away in the ground forever. Yes, that would definitely be nice. "I should've-"

A rough hand gently cupping your face cut you off abruptly, carefully bringing your face around until you met a pair of entrancing violet eyes and a face that must have been as red as your own. That was the very last thing you registered before a pair of warm lips covered your own.

His scent surrounded you, absolutely overwhelming your senses, an intoxicating blend of musk and something else you couldn't quite pin, quite possibly whatever shampoo it was that he had used that morning. A hint of cocoa slipped past your lips, pleasantly catching you off guard, the idea of Lui being someone who drank hot chocolate seemed right to you. It was all-consuming, he was all-consuming and you couldn't get enough of him. It was absolutely everything you had hoped for and so much more, and since the first day that you met him, you never could have guessed that you would be kissing Lui Shirosagi. Everything about that moment was perfect, but sadly, it had to end.

"That was a nice present," Lui huffed, a little half sort of life that warmed your heart.

"Merry Christmas Lui," you offered him a tiny, shy smile.

"Merry Christmas Y/n."