Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad

I smiled at my handiwork that sat on the table in front of me. I had wrapped the small box with plain red wrapping paper. I did my best to tie a bow around it with shiny green ribbon, but I ended tying my fingers together. I ended up using one of those pre-made stick on bows that you can find in stores. I’m not very good at wrapping gifts. There was more tape than necessary and it was messy looking. But what mattered was that it was completely wrapped. I hoped Lovi would like it.

It was eleven forty-five at night. Christmas would be here soon. Strangely enough, Lovi had fallen asleep early. That was a lucky break for me. I couldn’t wrap his gift in front of him. I took the gift and placed it under the modest Christmas tree we had put up. It wasn’t too large, but it was good enough for us and the friends that were going to be visiting us soon.

Lovi had helped me decorate it. He was not very enthusiastic about it at first, but he came around after we had gotten the lights untangled. I’m going to have to remember to put them away neater this year. The lights had somehow gotten into a massive knot that took Lovi and I over an hour to undo. We had put lights, silver garland, and several different kinds of Christmas ornaments from both our countries. Some had our flags and some just had the names of cities on them. I thought it came out very nicely.

Most of the gifts we put under the tree earlier that day. It had our gifts to each other and our gifts to our friends under it. It was lit up for the night. I left it and went to my room. I smiled seeing Lovi sleeping. He had a tenancy to hog the blankets when the whether was colder than usual. I turned on the space heater that sat on the floor of the room and got under the covers doing my best not to wake him up.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of knocking at the door.

“I got it!” yelled Lovi from the other room. He, like usual, had woken up before me. I got out of bed and got dressed. I put on some slacks and a sweater. I found Lovi’s brother, Feliciano, sitting in between Lovi and Germany. It was for the best, since Lovi was already beginning to glare at Germany. I knew the words ‘potato lover’ were going to be said more than a few times today.

“Good morning Spain!” Feliciano greeted and quickly followed up with, “Merry Christmas. I hope Santa brought you some good gifts!”

“Good morning.” I smiled. “Did you open any of your presents?”

“Santa Claus gave me pasta!” Feliciano exclaimed. I noticed Germany roll his eyes. Hearing the word pasta all day everyday probably got a little annoying, but he seemed to handle it well.

Feliciano looked at Germany excitedly. “We should cook it for dinner tonight.”

Germany sighed. Lovi was glaring at Germany. He mumbled something under his breath.

“Lovi,” I said trying to get his attention off the blonde haired man.

“What?” He snapped.

I smiled, pretending like it didn’t bother me. “We can open our gifts now?”

Lovi shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t care.”

His brother ran over to the tree and said, “Romano! Romano! Look this one is for you.”

And so the present opening ritual began. We all exchanged our gifts. Japan showed up, surprised that he had gotten gifts too. My friend, France was suppose to come over, but he ended up not being able to make it. It was a bit of a shame, but I’ll just give him his gift when I get to see him next. The presents didn’t take long to open and there was only one present left. It was the small, messily wrapped gift from me to Romano.

I had originally wanted to give it to him before everyone showed up, but I had slept in too late. I was getting nervous. I picked up the small box(that looking at it again, kind of looked like a tomato) and said, “Lovi, you missed one.”

I took a deep breath. I was scared of his reaction. It could be really good or really bad. He managed to get it open after hassling with it for several minutes. I was right it was too much tape.

Lovi tore all the paper off of it and revealed a small blue box. Opening the box was a gold ring in his size. He looked up at me. He seemed a little confused. “What’s this?”

The others were unable to see what it was. Feliciano was trying to see around Lovi to catch a glimpse of the gift. Germany and Japan were waiting for Lovi to tell them. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. I was getting a knot in my stomach.

“Spain, what is this for?”

“Lovi, would you marry me?” I said casually. Lovi looked shocked and pushed the box with the ring in it into my hands. He left the room. I felt like I was going to throw up. I sat down on the couch.

Feliciano ran after his brother. Germany and Japan looked at each other. Germany asked, “Are you going to be okay?”

I nodded. “I think I sort of expected something like this to happen.”

Japan decided that he was going to leave. I wished him a merry Christmas and he left. It wasn’t long before Germany took Feliciano with him and went back to their home. I was left in the living room alone. I guess Lovi went to his room or something.

I went to the kitchen and began to make some dinner. We hadn’t planned out anything special for dinner. I made a can of tomato soup. Normally, I would make it by hand but tomatoes were out of season, so this would have to do. I was hoping that Lovi would smell the tomato based food and come out. He didn’t.

I ate alone at the table. I washed my bowl when I was finished. As I put the now clean dish and spoon away, I heard movement. Lovi had finally decided to come out. I smiled wide. I was just glad that he had decided that he would be around me still.

He was scowling. Lovi saw the tomato soup. He got some and sat at the table to eat. I sat at the table too. I noticed the weight in my pocket and began to get sad. I kept a happy face. After all, who can be sad on Christmas? Lovi took a few bites of his soup and mainly swirled it around in his bowl.

He finally looked up at me. “Why would you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked. I hadn’t done anything in the last few hours to him.

“You know what I’m talking about!”

“Oh...that.”

“Why would you propose to me like that?”

I sighed and smiled. “Because I love you.”

“Tomato bastard.” He stirred his soup some more with his spoon. He suddenly got up and dumped his soup out in the trash and put his bowl and spoon in the sink. Lovi began to walk back to his seat.

“Lovi, look, I’m sor-”

Lovi cut me off with a kiss. I was confused, but I kissed him back. When he broke away, I asked, “What was that for?”

“Don’t ask me such embarrassing questions in front of people!” Lovi shouted at me.

“We aren’t around anyone and that wasn’t embarrassing, was it?”

“I was talking about the other question.” Lovi snapped.

I suddenly understood. “Lovi, I have a Christmas present for you.”

I handed him the gift he had pushed back on me. I said, “Buon Natale.”

I saw a small shadow of a smile appear on his lips. I had worked hard learning how to say merry Christmas in his language.

He opened the box and said, “Feliz Navidad.”

“Lovi?”

“Spain?”

“Will you marry me?”

I felt his lips crash into mine. I guess that was a yes.

I whispered, “I love you.”

He led me to the bedroom and said, “I love you too, Tomato Bastard.”

He shut the door and we went to bed.