[Samuel x Roman]

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Roman made a whiny noise at being told to walk but did it, so his boyfriend didn't get sick of him. He took Samuel's hand and walked with him out into the living room.

"Merry Christmas sweetie," Ingrid said to Samuel, kissing him on the cheek before doing the same thing to her son. "Help yourselves to some breakfast."

It seemed that they had ordered the whole works for Christmas breakfast -- pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, waffles, strudel, toast, many types of juice, sliced fruits and plenty of other items. They had spared no expenses. As per Hemlock family tradition, they ate their meal in the living room, with the four young adults on the floor and Stellan and Ingrid on the couch.

Allison was crawling around on the floor like mad, investigating the presents under the tree. Roman watched as she pulled a Christmas bauble from the tree and held it up to show everyone the sparkly colour.
 
Samuel grabbed a plate of food and he and Roman went to go sit down on the floor, this was the second year he was taking part in the hemlock family traditions and he couldn't be happier about it. It was a little different due to the different location obviously, but he also wouldn't have to hurry off to church this year.

Allison would also be taking part in the traditions for the second time but it might as well have been her first since she had literally been born the day before last Christmas. Now she was one year and a day old and was experiencing the second different and exciting day in a row and she was obviously excited about the holiday. Samuel found it to be incredibly adorable and gladly watched the little girl interacted with the family as he ate his breakfast.

"That's so pretty, Allison, thank you for showing us," Evan said sweetly to his little girl and she shone up and handed her father the ornament, he thanked her again, clearly putting more thought in how he communicated with his daughter now that she was starting to learn how to talk herself.

"Will you show Mommy too?" Evan handed the bauble back to Allison who straight away turned to London and handed it to her. It could just be that her natural instinct was to move on to show her mother, but it was also just as likely that she understood the word mommy and thus knew who she was going to hand it to.
 
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"Oh, wow, thank you, princess, it's beautiful!" said London happily, taking the ornament and inspecting it in order to entertain and satisfy her daughter. "Thank you!" She then handed it back to the baby. "Do you want to show your Uncle Roman now?"

Roman held his arms out for Allison with a huge smile on his face. The baby came crawling over, the bauble in one of her hands, and sat down in front of him, holding out the object to her much bigger uncle.

"Oh my goodness, Allison, this is so lovely," Roman crooned, giving the baby a kiss to the cheek. He then passed it back to her. "You should show your Uncle Samuel too."

Roman thought it was quite important for Allison to bond with Samuel, because out of the whole family -- excluding Brooklyn, fuck Brooklyn -- she interacted with Samuel the least. And Samuel was definitely a part of the family by this point. There was no argument on that fact.
 
Samuel wasn't one to take initiative and carry or play much with Allison by himself, he was just kind of afraid he'd accidentally upset her. And he didn't want to steal too much of her time from her family members. But he was more than happy to play with her when he did do it, she was cute and nice and it was fun. And Roman had made the conscious decision to call Samuel her uncle, which really warmed him.

Through Allison, Evan had literally become part of the family. By blood. Samuel knew that wasn't what mattered in the end, but that and the fact that he was spending so much time at the Hemlocks' made it feel like Evan seemed like more a part of it all then Samuel. He never felt excluded, he knew he had a place in the family, but he was still just aware of it sometimes. So, it was nice to be included.

Samuel gave her a little wave to signal that he was Samuel and the person her uncle wanted her to show the sparkly object to. She crawled over and handed it to him and he did like the others and inspected it as if it truly was something interesting, "It's very neat, thank you for being so nice and showing me too ...uh"

Samuel realized they were out of people within her reach, that being people seated on the floor, so he looked up towards London and Evan on how to handle the situation. As if It was a situation you actually needed help for.

"What now?"

"Help her stand so she can show Stellan and Ingrid," Evan suggested with a shrug.

Samuel nodded and handed back the bauble to Allison, "Here you go, let's show your grandparents," he then put his hands under her little arms and helped her stand up, she instinctively put her hands on the couch for balance and Samuel loosened his grip a little so she was mostly supporting her own weight, but didn't really let go because he didn't want her to fall. Allison just seemed delighted that the game was continuing and held the out the ornament to her grandparents.
 
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"Wow, sweetie, that's so pretty!"

"How lovely, darling."

After breakfast, present time was among them. Like always, they started with Stellan and Ingrid first. Roman bought his father a nice new pair of shoes for work and his mother a set of gorgeous stationary, plus a new set of whiteboard markers for her work. She often complained that she was running out of markers, and since she taught little Year Twos, she needed plenty.

Then it came time for the kids' presents to each other. "Evan has to open mine first," Roman loudly interjected before anyone could say anything otherwise. He pointed to a large blue gift at the back of the tree.

London raised an eyebrow but picked up the gift and handed it to her boyfriend. Inside, Evan would find a whiteboard, framed with wood that was beautifully carved with roses, like the kind of embroidery a grandmother would do to decorate her house. The board sported a scoreboard -- Roman's and Evan's names in two columns. Beneath their names stood a tally for every petty competition either of them had won against each other.
 
Evan eyed Roman suspiciously but started to unwrap the gift anyway. Ones he had opened it and properly figured out what it was he burst out laughing, "Dude, this is actually really funny. And useful. Very useful,"

Samuel peered over to see what it was only to chuckle a little he too. It was funny. Samuel leaned over the floor, grabbed the dry erase pen that came with it and casually added a line in Roman's column.

"What? Why? Don't give him points for no reason,"

"He gets one for defeating you in fun gift ideas," Samuel chuckled.

"Hey! Mine's good too," Even said angrily.

"but not as good," Samuel said, he was pretty sure no one was as good at gifts as Roman was, there was always a lot of thought put into them. Evan wasn't all that bad at it either though. He had gotten Roman a card game, it was one of those more complicated ones with lots of rules where you could play things out of your turn, but the objective of the game was essentially to gain levels and sabotage for everyone else, it was the perfect game for the two of them to play.

Evan leaned in to find a small rectangular and surprisingly well-wrapped package under the tree and threw it at Samuel who caught it and handed over it to Roman in the civil way one was supposed to hand over gifts.
 
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"I'm glad you like it," Roman said honestly to Evan. He may joke and pretend to hate his sister's boyfriend but he genuinely did care about the guy -- after all, he was the father of his niece. He was family.

Roman opened the gift and chuckled -- he had heard of the game and knew it was the type of game they would love to play together. "Thanks, fam," he said to Evan, nodding to him. Then, he picked up the next gift and handed it to his sister.

Roman got London a beautiful necklace and matching earrings and London had bought him a fancy Harry Potter Monopoly game, which Roman knew he would love. They exchanged hugs and kisses for the gifts and then Roman turned to Samuel. He handed his boyfriend his gift.

"Here you go."

Inside the box, Samuel would find a Barcelona FC T-shirt with Samuel's surname and player number on the back, as if he actually played for the team (and a sneaky 'is that Ronaldo on the inside'), as well as a hand-drawn picture of himself, Samuel and their pets, snuggled on the bed, the image so realistic it looked like a photo. He had also included a package of coffee-flavoured chocolates.
 
Samuel carefully unwrapped the gift, right away he noticed the familiar red and blue colours of his favourite team but he went for the drawing first. Had he not known better he would have thought it was a photography, but he knew Roman was just that amazing of an artist. Samuel was as amazed as he always was upon seeing his boyfriend's art, even more so now because the subject matter was something meaningful. Them and their tiny little family.

"It's beautiful, thank you," Samuel leaned in to kiss Roman properly to show his love and appreciation. Then he studied the picture for a further couple of seconds before carefully putting it down, he chuckled a little at the chocolates and mumbled something about him "enabling his coffee addiction," before moving on to the Barcelona themed item. Which turned out to be a shirt. With his name on it.

"Roman this is ridiculously cool. You realize I'm going to live in this right?" Samuel informed his boyfriend excitedly. Because he was going to live in it and nothing Roman did could stop him.

"Here's yours," Samuel handed over Roman's package once he was done admiring what he had gotten. As usual, the package wasn't very well wrapped but he had tried and that was the point.

Samuel had also tried his best to come up with something to give his boyfriend by himself this year. Which meant scavenging the internet for gift ideas for hours. What he had ended up getting him, in the end, was a fancy mixed media sketch book. The spiral bound sketch book was a dark navy blue, almost black, colour and was covered in a lot of little golden speckles meant to look like stars, it also had Roman's name written in gold on the front with a script font. Samuel had also gotten him a set of travel-friendly paint brushes, which you could unscrew on the middle and store the brush end in the hollow of the back end so they didn't get ruined. All in all, Samuel was pretty proud of what he had come up with for his boyfriend, but he had thrown in a can of coke in the gift as well, just for good measure.
 
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Roman's heart warmed upon seeing his boyfriend's reactions to the gifts he had bought him. Roman loved making Samuel happy. His heart warmed when his boyfriend smiled, and that was how he knew it was love -- because Roman would do absolutely anything to make him happy, and he knew the other would do the same.

"I'm glad you like it," Roman said happily, kissing Samuel again before taking his gift and opening it.

He tore off the paper and pulled out the items. A huge smile lit up Roman's face upon seeing what he had received. The sketchbook was beautiful and resembled the night sky -- the paintbrushes were practical and cute, and of course, the Coke would never go wrong.

"I love it," Roman said to Samuel, leaning over and kissing him on the lips for the third time. "Thank you. But you're really not helping in curbing my Coke addiction."
 
"I might or might not find it too adorable to have the heart to stop you," Samuel smiled at Roman. The statement might or might not have been true.

Once all gifts were unwrapped and all wrapping paper thrown away everyone went into their rooms to get ready for what would be the next activity for the day. Tennis apparently. Samuel didn't complain at all, he liked sports in general. He hadn't ever really played tennis other than a couple of times in PE so he wasn't a hundred percent up to date with all the rules, which he supposed he had to since Ingrid actually played and it was the one sports Roman actually seemed to enjoy.

Actually, Roman enjoying a sport was probably what made Samuel the most excited. He knew his boyfriend couldn't really practice any sports because of his health condition, but he wasn't very big on watching them either, whereas Samuel could plop down in front of the TV find a game of some random sport and find it somewhat entertaining despite not really caring about the sport In question. So, it was fun to find some common ground.

They got dressed, Samuel in a pair of simple navy Adidas shorts and a T-shirt, and then the whole family headed out to the Tennis courts located at the hotel, there were several and during the Christmas morning it was only one of them were taken up by other people, meaning they had plenty of space to play.

"Roman, are you playing?" Evan asked, he too was wearing athletics gear but that was honestly what he wore as everyday clothes so it wasn't much of a difference, "If you do, I'm totally challenging you."
 
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Tennis.

Roman loved tennis.

He loved watching people play. He loved the power that went into every stroke of the racquet, every hit of the ball. He loved the players' grace as they glided across the court. He loved the satisfying sound of the ball hitting the ground, bouncing off the wires of the racquet.

It was the only sport he actually watched of his own free will. When the Australian Open was on in January, it was all he played on TV. He religiously followed Alexander Zverev, a male player from Germany, and Daria 'Dasha' Gavrilova, the Russian immigrant who now played for Australia. He watched soccer when Samuel had it on, but he didn't care about soccer anywhere near as much as he cared about tennis.

He went down to the courts with everyone else, wearing black shorts and a black T-shirt. London wore shorts and a tank top, and their parents were dressed similarly.

Roman bit his lip. He would love nothing more than to play with his family, but it was far too dangerous.

"Nah," he said with a sigh, sitting down beside Allison's stroller. "I'll just watch."
 
Evan frowned at Roman's answer, clearly disappointed over the fact that he wouldn't get to play against Roman. But Evan knew clearly why that was by now and didn't push it.

"Well, it wouldn't really be fair to leave Allison without company," Samuel said in an attempt to make Roman feel a little better about his responsible decision to not play. He ruffled Roman's hair affectionately and Evan mumbled something about playing against Samuel wasn't as fun.

The other five people gathered to go over rules and settled for playing singles on two fields, that would make switching out players easier and quicker, since they weren't an even number of players and one would have to sit out.

Samuel offered to be the first one to sit and watch, which probably came to no surprise to anyone. Samuel just figured that if one of them had to sit on the sidelines first thing he might as well do it and see how his boyfriend felt about not being able to play. He did intend on playing, though, because he did think it was fun and he totally wanted to prove that he was in fact just as fun to play against as Roman by beating Evan.

The four split up on two of the fields and Samuel want to sit down next to his boyfriend, "I wasn't allowed to play because they were afraid I would be too good,"
 
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"Sure," Roman drawled with a roll of his eyes. "They actually sent you over here because you suck so much that they don't want to put up with you."

Roman rubbed his boyfriend's knee for a moment to let him know that he was joking and turned his head away to watch the others play. Ingrid played opposite Stellan and glided across the court with the same elegance and grace of professional players. Stellan wasn't too bad himself, but he wasn't as good as his wife. London, of course, being an athlete, was quite good herself. She was keeping up with Evan.

Roman let out a sigh. He really wanted to play but it would be reckless for him to do so. He could get hurt, and that would spoil their holiday. But ...

"Ugh. I just want to play," he whined, laying down with his head in Samuel's lap.
 
"I wish you could play," Samuel said as he gently ran his finger's through Roman's hair as he always did when Roman placed his head in his lap. Wishing didn't help anyone though, Roman would always have his bleeding disorder, there was no getting around that, no matter how much Samuel wanted his boyfriend to do whatever he wanted to without having to fear for his life.

Samuel quieted down for a moment and watched the other's play, quite intensely, Evan seemed too had taken to being competitive with his girlfriend instead and they were both clearly doing their best to win. Samuel didn't like the idea of Roman taking one of their places, he couldn't stop himself from imagining Roman just trying to get to the ball flying to far above his head and falling and seriously hurting himself.

But other than the risk of falling Samuel supposed tennis could be a more okay sport for Roman as it contained less running and no people tackling each other and things like that.

"Do you think it would be too risky to just play very non-competitive, like, only nice serves and passes?" Samuel half voiced a thought out loud half asked. He wasn't sure if he would even want Roman to risk it, but if the game wasn't as intense as it could be, if it was just casual and fun and it didn't matter if Roman couldn't recklessly throw himself towards the ball and risk falling for the sake of not losing a point.
 
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Roman knew that even casually hitting the ball posed some risks for him. Hell, falling off the monkey bars that time could have killed him. There were many things that Roman simply just couldn't do, and that was something he had had to come to terms with over the course of his life.

But ... he really wanted to play.

"Okay."

Roman stood up, took two of the spare racquets and handed one of them to Samuel. He then found a tube of spare balls and he and Samuel went to one of the empty courts, where Roman took one end and his boyfriend took the other.

Roman took a deep breath, raised his racquet, threw a ball up in the air and hit it.

He might not have been playing tennis all his life like Ingrid and London, but he had grown up watching them and professionals alike, so he knew a thing or two. Therefore, the ball went sailing over to Samuel's side with little issues. Roman watched and grinned as it did so.
 
Samuel grabbed the racquet and stood opposite of Roman, waiting expectantly for Roman to throw the ball into the air, the moment felt loaded, as if the simple act of starting the game would hurt Roman.

If Roman were to hurt himself Samuel wouldn't be able to forgive himself for suggesting they play, but the grin that spread on Roman's face when he hit the ball made it feel like this could be worth it. He probably wouldn't fall if they played calmly and only for a little while.

Samuel might not have played much of this particular sport before, but he was good enough at sports in general to be able to play without any problems. He was in control of his body, knew how much force he needed to put into the hits and since they weren't being competitive about it there was no need for him to be reckless like he tended to be when playing soccer.

He received the ball without trouble and hit it, aiming to make sure it would be easy for Roman to send it back over to him again. They were playing on opposite sides but it was essentially teamwork, trying to keep the ball in play rather than to beat each other.
 
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He was playing. He was actually playing. Roman couldn't keep the smile off his face.

The racquet felt nice in his hand. Roman sent the ball back to Samuel without any troubles. He found that he didn't have to move around as much as the others, due to Samuel purposefully aiming the ball in his direction, which was good, because that was what posed the most risk when it came to things like this. Moving. If he fell, it wouldn't end well at all.

But he wasn't falling, like he had been told all his life he would. He was playing.

"Looking good, sweetie!" Ingrid called out from her court, smiling proudly at her son. Roman smiled back at her and hit the ball back to Samuel.

"Thanks, Mum!"

"Roman, how dare you achieve your dreams."

"Bite me, London."
 
It made Samuel warm inside to see his boyfriend so happy and proud of himself. To one up his illness for once. Hopefully, nothing would happen to turn that around but with another couple of back and forths with the ball it really didn't seem like that would happen. They seemed to have found a way for Roman to play without being in too much danger

"You're way too good at this for someone who doesn't play any sports at all," Samuel complimented his boyfriend as he swung the racquet and hit the ball so it once again would end up perfectly within reach for Roman. Sure Samuel was making sure he could hit the ball, but Roman was doing equally as good of a job aiming it Samuel's way, he clearly loved the sport and seemed to have picked up a lot from watching people play it.

"I have a theory that he actually practices everything in secret so he can become good and beat everyone late --Shit!" Evan ended up being too focused on jokingly accusing Roman and missed the ball London had sent his earning her a point and a boyfriend who was irritated at himself.
 
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Roman snickered when Evan lost the point to London. "I have a theory that you need to concentrate on the task at hand, instead of bragging and talking yourself up," he said affectionately. He was joking, of course. Evan was a decent guy.

Roman was having fun. He had spent his life not playing any sport, much las the one sport he liked, so to play tennis with his family was a wonderful thing to him. He kept playing, even gaining the confidence to move around the court a little -- not as much as the others were, but more than he had planned to do.

And eventually, somehow, he hit the ball and won a point against Samuel.

Roman stopped, shocked, and then smiled.

"Oh my God."
 
Samuel stared as the ball bounced off the field, and then turned to stare at his boyfriend for a moment as he registered what just happened, "I meant for that to happen,"

"yeah totally, a hundred percent, you would never lose a point," Evan grinned at Samuel, this time he was holding London and his ball, ready to serve, so he couldn't be distracted by talking to the others.

Honestly, Samuel wasn't playing to win so it wasn't like it mattered, he was still making sure Roman was able to receive every ball without problem, as he had started to move around a little more, though, Samuel got a little more of a challenge to get them to him and thus the difficulty of the game had upped.

Samuel ran off the field to get the ball as he got it he jogged back and pointed his racquet at Roman, "you are too good at this," Yeah Samuel wasn't trying to win, but he sure as hell was trying to hit the ball, Roman deserved some credit, he really was good at this if you took the fact that he never played sports into consideration.
 
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