While you were sleeping[boyxboy]✔️ - 10 Merry Christmas! part 03

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A/n: It’s a very long update,I warn you! More than 4k words, but I didn’t want to split the Christmas dinner into four parts. Three parts are already too many🤦‍♀️

After dinner the whole family went to the living room for the most-awaited moment of the evening: the unpacking of the presents boxes left there by Santa Claus.
It was close to a half an hour since Yibo was still hidden inside the restroom, to avoid feeling like an outsider. 

He jumped out of his skin at the door knocking and at Xiao Zhan’s worried voice:
“What’s wrong, are you alright, Perrito? I saw you eating quite a lot from NaiNai’s egg pie, could it be that it was not so good for your stomach?”

“No, no, I’m alright. I was just on the phone with my boss. Go back, everything is okay.”, Yibo replied from behind the still closed door.

“Then, open the door, I want to see with my own eyes that you’re alright. Besides, they said to bring you with me. Your box remained the only one unpacked, Santa could feel offended. Come on, open the door!”, Xiao Zhan whined, scratching onto the door like an impatient kid.

“I have a box, too? Seems that Santa is getting too old, he should retire from the job! Santa should have known that I am not this family member!”, Yibo said, trying to hide his surprise behind a witty joke, while unlocking the door.

“Not again!”, Xiao Zhan sighed, rolling his eyes while pulling Yibo into his embrace as soon as he pushed the door open.
“What the heck, Perrito! Did you even listen to my whole blabbering, there, in the living room?
Of course that you have a box! You are this family member, and that is final! It should get into your stubborn skull already! Jeez!”

On their way to the living room, Yibo apologized for not bringing any gifts.
“I could say that I didn’t have time to buy something because I was at work, but I’m not going to lie! I didn’t even think about that, as I never spent Christmas and I didn’t know the tradition.
Actually, now that I think about it, I watched movies, so I should have known…”

“Oh, shut up, Perrito!
Why should you bring gifts? Aren’t you too young to be Santa Claus? And too handsome? Look, you don’t even have a beard!”, ZhanZhan chuckled, wrapping an arm around the flustered boy’s shoulder, after endearingly pinching his beardless chin.

“I brought him!
I told you not to get worried, he was not sick because of your pie, NaiNai!
He was on the phone with his boss.”, Xiao Zhan explained to the worried granny who exhaled in relief.

“ZhanZhan GeGe, you left the bunny you got from Santa alone and look at him, he’s crying!”, Lulu whined, hugging the red plush bunny at her chest.

“I’m sorry, bunny, I didn’t forget about you, I left just for a minute, just for bringing a gouzaizai friend to you.”, Xiao Zhan smiled, taking the plush from his little sister and giving a kiss to the upset bunny doll, then handing it to Yibo, to kiss it, too.

Of course, Yibo kissed the plush on the exact spot where Zhan Zhan GeGe kissed it…For no certain reason…of course.

“Dulce Gege, this is your box from Santa!
Because we all know that Santa bought these gifts, not ZhanZhan GeGe!”, A-Yuan winked at Yibo, while carrying the big box and placing it in Yibo’s lap.

“Thank you Santa. I have never received a gift from you, and it has my name glittering on the box, wow!”, Yibo thanked with tears glimmering in his eyes.

Lulu took pity of him and tiptoed to whisper to his ear:
“Dulce GeGe , don’t cry and don’t let yourself be fooled by them. Santa is just a fictional character who couldn’t bring the gifts by flying in the sky on a sleigh. Actually ZhanZhan GeGe took care of everything like he always does, but pretend that you believe in the Santa version.”

“Alright, LuLu , I will do so, thank you for letting me know,”, Yibo smiled affectionately at his cute accomplice.

“Now, open the box, I’m dying of curiosity about what you got from Santa! We are all curious, I bet!”, A-Yuan urged Yibo to unpack the gift.

“Oh, my God!
Is this my BaBa’s sweater?
But…but…What in the world is this?!”, Yibo shouted while unwrapping the gift from the colorful paper.

“What?! What?!”, the twins shouted too, along with a curious LingLing.

“It’s a turtle doll!
But why a turtle? You don’t look to me like a turtle, at least we know why ZhanZhan GeGe got a bunny,.Because of those rabbit front teeth of his, ha, ha!”, A -Yuan laughed, checking out closely the doll that Dulce GeGe placed on the table.

“Wait, there is a necklace around the turtle’s neck. At least this one makes sense. ZhanZhan GeGe calls Dulce GeGe with the nickname Perrito. That’s why the necklace is a bone, because puppies eat bones, I get it! But this bone also looks like two connected hearts, if you ask me! And look, it’s written Perrito with green diamonds on the bone!”, Lulu concluded her Sherlock Holmes investigation.

“Green diamonds, because Perrito’s favorite color is green.
And yes, LuLu, you got it right, puppies love eating bones. And also the puppy is loved , that’s why there are two connected hearts. Connected by lots of love!”, Xiao Zhan started explaining.

“He is loved by MianMian, you mean.”, GuangYao said.

“No, not only by MeiMei, that heart connected to his heart is our whole family’s heart, we all love him!
But why do you call him Perrito? I always wanted to ask you. Is it because he is adorable, and has a warm, nice personality like a sweet pup?”, Mama Alexandra smiled at the teary, overwhelmed puppy.

“I will explain that to all of you, and especially to him, too. But first let me tell you why a turtle, and the story of the turtle’s clothes.
Yibo, come here and take a seat, don’t stand there like a punished kid.”, Xiao Zhan smiled at the emotional boy who was like rooted in the spot, not even daring to hold the turtle doll, but instead he was hugging the empty box to his chest.

After Yibo sat down next to Xiao Zhan and ZhanZhan took his hand into his, like he usually did, many times before, he started his telling:
“I hope Yibo will not mind me telling you all, some of his life’s inside stories.
Yibo’s best and old time friend is a turtle, whose name is a beautiful name, BaiXiangGuo. He loves her and takes great care of her, that’s why Santa chose to give him a turtle as a Christmas present..
But what this plush turtle wears is what impressed Santa the most.
As you all know, Yibo’s father sadly passed away. He loved his BaBa very much and he misses him dearly. Yibo kept his BaBa’s old, worn out sweater, lying on the armchair his dad used to sit when telling the little BoBo kid stories before his sleep. It felt like his dear father was still sitting there, telling him stories before sleep and watching over his safety like a guardian angel.
Santa had an idea, after I told him that I asked Yibo to give me that sweater. Santa asked our talented NaiNai to sew clothes for the turtle doll, made from that sweater.”

“And that way, Dulce GeGe will feel his BaBa closer to him, by hugging the turtle doll dressed in his BaBa’s sweater, instead of just watching the sweater lying on the armchair.”, Lulu sniffed, and walked to the table to bring the turtle doll ,then plastered it onto Yibo’s chest.

By now, everyone was sniffing, not only LuLu. The cool LingLing was downright crying, not only sniffing.

“But, let’s not get sad, it’s the Christmas night that should be celebrated with joy, love and happiness, not with tears.”, Xiao Zhan said after wiping Yibo’s tears with his free hand.
Because it’s Christmas I will tell you , Yibo, why I call you Perrito, as you asked me a few times about that. This will be a gift from me this time, not from Santa.
When we met for the first time, I knew that you reminded me of someone, but I just couldn’t figure out who that one could be.
Until one day it hit me! How could I even forget these bun cheeks of yours, I wonder?”, Xiao Zhan playfully poked Yibo’s cheek with the tip of his fingers.

“What?”, Yibo asked in a small voice.
Nah, it couldn’t be that the popular Xiao Yang might remember an insignificant nerdy student! like little Yibo was at that time!

“By the time I kept staring at you, bits of memories slowly came back to me. And at some point, I finally figured out why you look so familiar to me.
It was right before leaving China. I was walking on a bridge, when I saw a child hanging over the railing. Luckily his winter coat’s collar was hooked by a railing pillar,and also, luckily I was there at the right moment, to pull him up, or else that kid could have been dead.”, Xiao Zhan recounted, and wanted to tell further who the kid was, but was brusquely interrupted by GuangYao’s unexpected shout that scared the hell out of everyone from the room.

“Oh, good heavens!!!
And you, LingLing, believe that there is no God! How could you explain this, then?
This is the kid whose life you saved!
This is the kid who saved your sister’s life in return!
And this is the kid I used to bully and he asked for my friendship in return
This is Wang Yibo! Our dearest Wang Yibo!”, GuangYao surprised Xiao Zhan with the crumpled picture he shoved to his face with trembling hands.

“What a miraculous Christmas night we have this year!
We should thank Gods, heaven, u”niverse, whatever, for bringing this man into our lives!
And no less, we should thank ZhanZhan for saving his life and also thank Wang Yibo for saving our MianMian’s life!”, NaiNai spoke, then kissed both mentioned men’s cheeks.

“It’s a magical night indeed.Very beautiful stories, even the sad stories were extremely beautiful, Yet, I didn’t understand why you call him Perrito, though.”, Mama Alexandra expressed her confusion.

“Because, after he saved my life, he asked me ‘Are you alright gouzaizai?’. Yeah, he calls me Perrito, because he called me gouzaizai.
I have never forgotten, and I recognized him from the first moment I saw him. But I didn’t say anything, because I would have never imagined that he could remember that ten years old nerdy kid.”, Yibo sniffed, trying hard to not fully burst into tears,

“Please, my sweet Perrito, our beloved gouzaizai, don’t cry anymore. We are all alive and well, we are all loved and cherished, we should be happy! “, Xiao Zhan pulled Yibo in a tight embrace and kissed the crown of his head.

“Here there is another pair of reindeer antlers, Yibo. Your cute nose asking to be booped, looks like a Rudolph nose, even if it’s not red, ha, ha.
I want to take a selfie of you two, my favorite Santa reindeer.”, GuangYao giggled, while placing the antlers on Yibo’s head, for taking the said picture.

“Santa’s reindeer are actually girls! Yep, including the red nose Rudolph! Both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer, male reindeer will drop their antlers at the end of fall or beginning of winter.Female reindeer will also shed their antlers in the winter unless, of course, they’re pregnant. Female reindeer that are pregnant will retain their antlers until after they’ve given birth to their calves in the spring. So, to conclude, not only are these magical creatures all female, but they’re probably all pregnant, too.”, A-Yuan explained like a true highly qualified professor.

“Woah, A-Yuan! How do you know all that stuff, and why do you talk in an adult language, not like any regular child?
Are you sure that you are a five years old kid, and not a midget with academic studies or something?
You don’t speak like a kid to me, you actually scare me!”, LingLing made a horrified face, like seeing a ghost.

“No, he is not a midget! Actually he is quite tall for his age!
He talks like that because A-Yuan is very smart, the same as his twin sister, though. And also, because he wants to be a vet, and he already started to study for that.
I know what I want to be, too. I will be an actress, like MianMian JieJie!”, Lulu counterattacked Lingling’s affront to her twin.

“Oh, Lulu, don’t be such a warrior! I didn’t intend to offend A-Yuan, in any way, it was a compliment, actually. I was expressing my astonishment at his words.”, LingLing smiled, kissing the cheeks of both twins, whom he loves dearly.

“By the way, Yibo son, what did you dream of becoming? I understand that you studied Economics for a year, before your father’s illness forced you to abandon the studies. Did you like mathematics or something? It’s not too late, you know? You’re still young, you could re-enroll to the university, maybe even to the university I teach. I could give you help with that, if you’d decide so.”, Ba Jin GuangShan smiled.

“You loved math? Eww!”, LingLing couldn’t help himself, even knowing that NaiNai’s slap onto the back of his head was inevitably coming.

“Actually, no. I was not fond of math, even though I always had high grades. I only enrolled at this university just because my father thought that it would be a good choice for my professional future. My math teacher advised him, though.
My dream was completely different, but there is no point discussing that, everything was in the past. It was just a dream, and nothing more.”, Yibo sighed, with sadness in his eyes.

“Why are you saying this? As GuangShan told you, you are still young, you can do whatever you want! We will all help you, however we can. So, sit here and tell us about your dream.”, Baba XingChen, wrapped an arm around Yibo’s shoulders and sat him on the sofa, between GuangYao and Xiao Zhan.

“Yes, Ba and Baba are right in everything they said. Tell us, no matter what your dream was, nobody would judge you, I assure you. Not even that brat over there, he is too busy to stuff his chatty mouth with NaiNai’s cookies, anyway.”, Xiao Zhan pointed towards LingLing, while taking Yibo’s hands in his.

“Well, please don’t laugh, I always liked to sing, but the most I liked to dance. I was aware that I would never become a singer or a dancer, but my dream was to be a dancing trainer and to have my own dancing school. This was my dream. A stupid dream, I know.”, Yibo closed his exposure, with burning ears, not only because the whole family’s attention was focused on him, but mostly because of Xiao Zhan’s hot hand tightly gripping his cold one.

“Our Zhan GeGe loves to sing and dance, too! Why don’t you two sing together right now? Or better, dance, as we don’t have mics?”, Lulu clapped her little palms in excitement.

“Yeah, Lulu is right!
I have an idea!”, Mama Alexandra took her phone and started looking for something, while GuangYao and LingLing were already moving the living room furniture and rolling the carpet , to make more space for the dancers. The others moved their chairs to the wall, too.

The two proposed  dancers didn’t even have time to process what was happening, so fast the whole family got ready for the dancing show.

Mama Alexandra parted the boys’ entangled hands and crumpled between them to show them her phone screen:
“I found it! Watch this Youtube video carefully, It looks pretty easy to learn. I bet that it will take only a few times to watch it and you will both learn the dancing steps. Anyways, you can improvise when you forget something!”

A/n: This is the Youtube video that Mama Alexandra showed to YiZhan

“But, this dancing pair! They are two males! I’m not sure if it’s appropriate. MianMian would…”, Yibo mumbled, tapping his red cheeks, scared by now, about how far all this madness got.

Mama Alexandra pinched Yibo’s cheek:
“God, you’re so adorable! ZhanZhan was right about your cheeks, I can’t hold myself from pinching them.
So, what if they are two males? Aren’t you and ZhanZhan, two males, too? MianMian wouldn’t mind, for sure, as you know, she is a very smart and open minded girl. Both men from this video clip are actually married, each to their own dancing team member, meaning they are married to females. And that didn’t bother them or their wives from expressing their dancing art in a same gender dancing pair. Art is art, same as love is love, isn’t it?”

NaiNai stood up and asked for attention, like a real tribe chief:
“Everyone! Let’s go back in the dining room and leave them alone for a while, to peacefully learn and eventually rehearse the dancing steps.
Besides, I didn’t serve you yet the sherry I prepared by a new recipe that I never tried before. I want your honest opinion! Let’s go, everyone!” 

After they remained alone in the living room, Xiao Zhan started explaining to Yibo:
“This dance is called Bachata. It is not Spanish originally, it’s a style of social dance from the Dominican Republic which is now danced all over the world. It is connected with bachata music.
Bachata is commonly known as a very sensual dance.
Usually, dancing Bachata is a way to express the feelings one has for a specific other.
As you probably already know, before even learning the steps, we should try to build the connection, the chemistry so needed between two dancers.”

“Woah, you know so much about dancing! It was my dream, but I might think that you haunted me in my sleep, and got contaminated with my dancing dream, ha, ha.”, Yibo cracked a joke, like he usually does when trying to hide his nervousness.
How in the world does he want to build that damn connection and chemistry?

“First of all, let’s settle who will lead. In every dancing pair one should lead.”, Yibo cleared his voice.

“Not necessary. If you pay attention, these two keep taking turns leading. But if it’s easier to you, we could choose who is who, I mean you could learn the shorter dude’s steps, while I would choose the big ass dude’s role. Not as I am the one with a bigger ass from us, ha, ha. By the way, I couldn’t have not noticed that you have a very nice piece of ass, ferm, perky, rounded…Oh, yet again, I’m sorry MeiMei for envying you so much!
Don’t blush so hard, my sweet gouzaizai! I was just trying to build the connection and chemistry, don’t you remember?”

“By talking about my ass?
Jeez, Xiao Zhan Ge, you’re something…!”, Yibo shouted.

“Shh, they will hear you and think that we’re fighting, not learning how to dance!”, Xiao Zhan pressed his palm over Yibo’s mouth.

“God, your lips are so plump and so…Forgive me MeiMei, but I really must do this!”, Xiao Zhan whispered, slowly removing his hand from Yibo’s mouth…And replacing it with his own fervent lips pressed shortly, but hard, on Yibo’s trembling lips.

“I apologize to you, too, I did it for the sake of building the…”, Xiao Zhan remained breathless while explaining.
It was his turn now to tap his red, burning cheeks.

“The chemistry and the connection! Don’t worry, I am not upset, I understand.
Let’s watch the video now!”, Yibo tried to speak in a voice as normal as he could.

They learned the steps pretty fast, and after a brief rehearsal, they called the family to gather again in the living room.

After everyone had finally sat in their chairs, and Mama Alexandra connected her phone to LingLing’s speakers he brought from his room, she started the dancing video and the main characters of the Christmas evening started their dancing show, too.

While imitating the dancing pair from the video, they also improvised a lot.

The audience gasped in unison at Yibo’s flexibility when he stretched his leg into the lunge position between his dancing partner’s legs, and when Xiao Zhan lifted one of his super long legs and folded it under Yibo’s armpit, they almost panicked that the dancers could get injured by braking some bones.

“Good heavens, the way they are moving like they have no bones in their bodies!”, GuagYao exclaimed, standing up from the chair, to watch the dancers closer.

“Absolutely GORGEOUS!”, Ba and Baba said at the same time.

“I am simply speechless!”, Ma Jin Sanren replied, holding her husband’s arm, as to not faint out from too much admiration.

” Their movements are playful, beautiful and sway together as if they morphed into one!”, Mama Alexandra completed.

“And their chemistry together! It simply fills me with love, peace and harmony!”, LingLing said, too.

“I have never seen something like this!
I’ve never seen two people so happy and so in sync while dancing! This is beautiful, graceful and I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say it, but I will say it nevertheless. These two dancing together are hot, hot, hot!”, NaiNai shouted enthusiastically.

“Dulce GeGe should get married to ZhanZhan GeGe, not to MianMian JieJie!”, the twins shouted in one voice, but their outraging statement was luckily covered by the loud clapping of the whole audience.

They didn’t discuss the ending pose beforehand, thus they improvised.

When Xiao Zhan lifted Yibo by his underarms, he instantly wrapped his legs around his waist, while holding Xiao Zhan’s shoulder with one hand and holding his face with the other hand
When they locked their eyes in that intense stare, everything around had disappeared. There was no music, no audience, no living room, but just the two of them floating together on a cloud of …

Of what?

It can’t be love, there is no way!

Yibo shook his head like trying to wake up from a dream, and when the audience started to clap and cheer, he quickly slipped down his legs from Xiao Zhan’s waist and removed his hand from his cheek, like it was fire. 

“Merry Christmas, my beloved brother in law! I wish you to be happy! Always! And may all your dreams come true, you really deserve that!”, Xiao Zhan whispered, planting a “brotherly”, loud kiss on each of his cheeks.

“Merry Christmas to you, too. I wish you the same!”, Yibo replied in a strangled voice, not daring to kiss him back.
But he later regretted not doing so, when all the others started to greet each other with “Merry Christmas” and kiss each other’s cheeks.

Damn, he really wanted to kiss Xiao Zhan back!
Thus he took advantage of the family’s chaotic “Merry Christmas” moment and while sharing hugs and cheek kisses here and there, he stealthily slid closer to Xiao Zhan and pretended to hug and kiss his cheeks by mistake, while yelling a too loud “Merry Christmas” against his… His lips? Huh? How did his second kiss land on Xiao Zhan’s mouth instead of his cheek?
Luckily, nobody, but them, noticed that.

“Woah, Perrito, you broke my eardrum!
Merry Christmas to you, too!”, Xiao Zhan laughed, hugging him one last time, before stepping away to answer a phone call.

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Same story with no pics/gifs inserted along the text

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A/n: It’s a very long update,I warn you! More than 4k words, but I didn’t want to split the Christmas dinner into four parts. Three parts are already too many🤦‍♀️

After dinner the whole family went to the living room for the most-awaited moment of the evening: the unpacking of the presents boxes left there by Santa Claus.
It was close to a half an hour since Yibo was still hidden inside the restroom, to avoid feeling like an outsider.

He jumped out of his skin at the door knocking and at Xiao Zhan’s worried voice:
“What’s wrong, are you alright, Perrito? I saw you eating quite a lot from NaiNai’s egg pie, could it be that it was not so good for your stomach?”

“No, no, I’m alright. I was just on the phone with my boss. Go back, everything is okay.”, Yibo replied from behind the still closed door.

“Then, open the door, I want to see with my own eyes that you’re alright. Besides, they said to bring you with me. Your box remained the only one unpacked, Santa could feel offended. Come on, open the door!”, Xiao Zhan whined, scratching onto the door like an impatient kid.

“I have a box, too? Seems that Santa is getting too old, he should retire from the job! Santa should have known that I am not this family member!”, Yibo said, trying to hide his surprise behind a witty joke, while unlocking the door.

“Not again!”, Xiao Zhan sighed, rolling his eyes while pulling Yibo into his embrace as soon as he pushed the door open.
“What the heck, Perrito! Did you even listen to my whole blabbering, there, in the living room?
Of course that you have a box! You are this family member, and that is final! It should get into your stubborn skull already! Jeez!

On their way to the living room, Yibo apologized for not bringing any gifts.
“I could say that I didn’t have time to buy something because I was at work, but I’m not going to lie! I didn’t even think about that, as I never spent Christmas and I didn’t know the tradition.
Actually, now that I think about it, I watched movies, so I should have known…”

“Oh, shut up, Perrito!
Why should you bring gifts? Aren’t you too young to be Santa Claus? And too handsome? Look, you don’t even have a beard!”, ZhanZhan chuckled, wrapping an arm around the flustered boy’s shoulder, after endearingly pinching his beardless chin.

“I brought him!
I told you not to get worried, he was not sick because of your pie, NaiNai!
He was on the phone with his boss.”, Xiao Zhan explained to the worried granny who  exhaled in relief.

“ZhanZhan GeGe, you left the bunny you got from Santa alone and look at him, he’s crying!”, Lulu whined, hugging the red plush bunny at her chest.

“I’m sorry, bunny, I didn’t forget about you, I left just for a minute, just for bringing a gouzaizai friend to you.”, Xiao Zhan smiled, taking the plush from his little sister and giving a kiss to the upset bunny doll, then handing it to Yibo, to kiss it, too.

Of course, Yibo kissed the plush on the exact spot where Zhan Zhan GeGe kissed it…For no certain reason…of course.

“Dulce Gege, this is your box from Santa!
Because we all know that Santa bought these gifts, not ZhanZhan GeGe!”, A-Yuan winked at Yibo, while carrying the big box and placing it in Yibo’s lap.

“Thank you Santa. I have never received a gift from you, and it has my name glittering on the box, wow!”, Yibo thanked with tears glimmering in his eyes.

Lulu took pity of him and tiptoed to whisper to his ear:
“Dulce GeGe , don’t cry and don’t let yourself be fooled by them. Santa is just a fictional character who couldn’t bring the gifts by flying in the sky on a sleigh. Actually ZhanZhan GeGe took care of everything like he always does, but pretend that you believe in the Santa version.”

“Alright, LuLu , I will do so, thank you for letting me know,”, Yibo smiled affectionately at his cute accomplice.

“Now, open the box, I’m dying of curiosity about what you got from Santa! We are all curious, I bet!”, A-Yuan urged Yibo to unpack the gift.

“Oh, my God!
Is this my BaBa’s sweater?
But…but…What in the world is this?!”, Yibo shouted while unwrapping the gift from the colorful paper.

“What?! What?!”, the twins shouted too, along with a curious LingLing.

“It’s a turtle doll!
But why a turtle? You don’t look to me like a turtle, at least we know why ZhanZhan GeGe got a bunny,.Because of those rabbit front teeth of his, ha, ha!”, A -Yuan laughed, checking out closely the doll that Dulce GeGe placed on the table.

“Wait, there is a necklace around the turtle’s neck. At least this one makes sense. ZhanZhan GeGe calls Dulce GeGe with the nickname Perrito. That’s why the necklace is a bone, because puppies eat bones, I get it! But this bone also looks like two connected hearts, if you ask me! And look, it’s written Perrito with green diamonds on the bone!”, Lulu concluded her Sherlock Holmes investigation.

“Green diamonds, because Perrito’s favorite color is green.
And yes, LuLu, you got it right, puppies love eating bones. And also the puppy is loved , that’s why there are two connected hearts. Connected by lots of love!”, Xiao Zhan started explaining.

“He is loved by MianMian, you mean.”, GuangYao said.

“No, not only by MeiMei, that heart connected to his heart is our whole family’s heart, we all love him!
But why do you call him Perrito? I always wanted to ask you. Is it because he is adorable, and has a warm, nice personality like a sweet pup?”, Mama Alexandra smiled at the teary, overwhelmed puppy.

“I will explain that to all of you, and especially to him, too. But first let me tell you why a turtle, and the story of the turtle’s clothes.
Yibo, come here and take a seat, don’t stand there like a punished kid.”, Xiao Zhan smiled at the emotional boy who was like rooted in the spot, not even daring to hold the turtle doll, but instead he was hugging the empty box to his chest.

After Yibo sat down next to Xiao Zhan and ZhanZhan took his hand into his, like he usually did, many times before, he started his telling:
“I hope Yibo will not mind me telling you all, some of his life’s inside stories.
Yibo’s best and old time friend is a turtle, whose name is a beautiful name, BaiXiangGuo. He loves her and takes great care of her, that’s why Santa chose to give him a turtle as a Christmas present..
But what this plush turtle wears is what impressed Santa the most.
As you all know, Yibo’s father sadly passed away. He loved his BaBa very much and he misses him dearly. Yibo kept his BaBa’s old, worn out sweater, lying on the armchair his dad used to sit when telling the little BoBo kid stories before his sleep. It felt like his dear father was still sitting there, telling him stories before sleep and watching over his safety like a guardian angel.
Santa had an idea, after I told him that I asked Yibo to give me that sweater. Santa asked our talented NaiNai to sew clothes for the turtle doll, made from that sweater.”

“And that way, Dulce GeGe will feel his BaBa closer to him, by hugging the turtle doll dressed in his BaBa’s sweater, instead of just watching the sweater lying on the armchair.”, Lulu sniffed, and walked to the table to bring the turtle doll ,then plastered it onto Yibo’s chest.

By now, everyone was sniffing, not only LuLu. The cool LingLing was downright crying, not only sniffing.

“But, let’s not get sad, it’s the Christmas night that should be celebrated with joy, love and happiness, not with tears.”, Xiao Zhan said after wiping Yibo’s tears with his free hand.
Because it’s Christmas I will tell you , Yibo, why I call you Perrito, as you asked me a few times about that. This will be a gift from me this time, not from Santa.
When we met for the first time, I knew that you reminded me of someone, but I just couldn’t figure out who that one could be.
Until one day it hit me! How could I even forget these bun cheeks of yours, I wonder?”, Xiao Zhan playfully poked Yibo’s cheek with the tip of his fingers.

“What?”, Yibo asked in a small voice.
Nah, it couldn’t be that the popular Xiao Yang might remember an insignificant nerdy student! like little Yibo was at that time!

“By the time I kept staring at you, bits of memories slowly came back to me. And at some point, I finally figured out why you look so familiar to me.
It was right before leaving China. I was walking on a bridge, when I saw a child hanging over the railing. Luckily his winter coat’s collar was hooked by a railing pillar,and also, luckily I was there at the right moment, to pull him up, or else that kid could have been dead.”, Xiao Zhan recounted, and wanted to tell further who the kid was, but was brusquely interrupted by GuangYao’s unexpected shout that scared the hell out of everyone from the room.

“Oh, good heavens!!!
And you, LingLing, believe that there is no God! How could you explain this, then?
This is the kid whose life you saved!
This is the kid who saved your sister’s life in return!
And this is the kid I used to bully and he asked for my friendship in return
This is Wang Yibo! Our dearest Wang Yibo!”, GuangYao surprised Xiao Zhan with the crumpled picture he shoved to his face with trembling hands.

“What a miraculous Christmas night we have this year!
We should thank Gods, heaven, u”niverse, whatever, for bringing this man into our lives!
And no less, we should thank ZhanZhan for saving his life and also thank Wang Yibo for saving our MianMian’s life!”, NaiNai spoke, then kissed both mentioned men’s cheeks.

“It’s a magical night indeed.Very beautiful stories, even the sad stories were extremely beautiful, Yet, I didn’t understand why you call him Perrito, though.”, Mama Alexandra expressed her confusion.

“Because, after he saved my life, he asked me ‘Are you alright gouzaizai?’. Yeah, he calls me Perrito, because he called me gouzaizai.
I have never forgotten, and I recognized him from the first moment I saw him. But I didn’t say anything, because I would have never imagined that he could remember that ten years old nerdy kid.”, Yibo sniffed, trying hard to not fully burst into tears,

“Please, my sweet Perrito, our beloved gouzaizai, don’t cry anymore. We are all alive and well, we are all loved and cherished, we should be happy! “, Xiao Zhan pulled Yibo in a tight embrace and kissed the crown of his head.

“Here there is another pair of reindeer antlers, Yibo. Your cute nose asking to be booped, looks like a Rudolph nose, even if it’s not red, ha, ha.
I want to take a selfie of you two, my favorite Santa reindeer.”, GuangYao giggled, while placing the antlers on Yibo’s head, for taking the said picture.

“Santa’s reindeer are actually girls! Yep, including the red nose Rudolph! Both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer, male reindeer will drop their antlers at the end of fall or beginning of winter.Female reindeer will also shed their antlers in the winter unless, of course, they’re pregnant. Female reindeer that are pregnant will retain their antlers until after they’ve given birth to their calves in the spring. So, to conclude, not only are these magical creatures all female, but they’re probably all pregnant, too.”, A-Yuan explained like a true highly qualified professor.

“Woah, A-Yuan! How do you know all that stuff, and why do you talk in an adult language, not like any regular child?
Are you sure that you are a five years old kid, and not a midget with academic studies or something?
You don’t speak like a kid to me, you actually scare me!”, LingLing made a horrified face, like seeing a ghost.

“No, he is not a midget! Actually he is quite tall for his age!
He talks like that because A-Yuan is very smart, the same as his twin sister, though. And also, because he wants to be a vet, and he already started to study for that.
I know what I want to be, too. I will be an actress, like MianMian JieJie!”, Lulu counterattacked Lingling’s affront to her twin.

“Oh, Lulu, don’t be such a warrior! I didn’t intend to offend A-Yuan, in any way, it was a compliment, actually. I was expressing my astonishment at his words.”, LingLing smiled, kissing the cheeks of both twins, whom he loves dearly.

“By the way, Yibo son, what did you dream of becoming? I understand that you studied Economics for a year, before your father’s illness forced you to abandon the studies. Did you like mathematics or something? It’s not too late, you know? You’re still young, you could re-enroll to the university, maybe even to the university I teach. I could give you help with that, if you’d decide so.”, Ba Jin GuangShan smiled.

“You loved math? Eww!”, LingLing couldn’t help himself, even knowing that NaiNai’s slap onto the back of his head was inevitably coming.

“Actually, no. I was not fond of math, even though I always had high grades. I only enrolled at this university just because my father thought that it would be a good choice for my professional future. My math teacher advised him, though.
My dream was completely different, but there is no point discussing that, everything was in the past. It was just a dream, and nothing more.”, Yibo sighed, with sadness in his eyes.

“Why are you saying this? As GuangShan told you, you are still young, you can do whatever you want! We will all help you, however we can. So, sit here and tell us about your dream.”, Baba XingChen, wrapped an arm around Yibo’s shoulders and sat him on the sofa, between GuangYao and Xiao Zhan.

“Yes, Ba and Baba are right in everything they said. Tell us, no matter what your dream was, nobody would judge you, I assure you. Not even that brat over there, he is too busy to stuff his chatty mouth with NaiNai’s cookies, anyway.”, Xiao Zhan pointed towards LingLing, while taking Yibo’s hands in his.

“Well, please don’t laugh, I always liked to sing, but the most I liked to dance. I was aware that I would never become a singer or a dancer, but my dream was to be a dancing trainer and to have my own dancing school. This was my dream. A stupid dream, I know.”, Yibo closed his exposure, with burning ears, not only because the whole family’s attention was focused on him, but mostly because of Xiao Zhan’s hot hand tightly gripping his cold one.

“Our Zhan GeGe loves to sing and dance, too! Why don’t you two sing together right now? Or better, dance, as we don’t have mics?”, Lulu clapped her little palms in excitement.

“Yeah, Lulu is right!
I have an idea!”, Mama Alexandra took her phone and started looking for something, while GuangYao and LingLing were already moving the living room furniture and rolling the carpet , to make more space for the dancers. The others moved their chairs to the wall, too.

The two proposed dancers didn’t even have time to process what was happening, so fast the whole family got ready for the dancing show.

Mama Alexandra parted the boys’ entangled hands and crumpled between them to show them her phone screen:
“I found it! Watch this Youtube video carefully, It looks pretty easy to learn. I bet that it will take only a few times to watch it and you will both learn the dancing steps. Anyways, you can improvise when you forget something!”

A/n: This is the Youtube video that Mama Alexandra showed to YiZhan

“But, this dancing pair! They are two males! I’m not sure if it’s appropriate. MianMian would…”, Yibo mumbled, tapping his red cheeks, scared by now, about how far all this madness got.

Mama Alexandra pinched Yibo’s cheek:
“God, you’re so adorable! ZhanZhan was right about your cheeks, I can’t hold myself from pinching them.
So, what if they are two males? Aren’t you and ZhanZhan, two males, too? MianMian wouldn’t mind, for sure, as you know, she is a very smart and open minded girl. Both men from this video clip are actually married, each to their own dancing team member, meaning they are married to females. And that didn’t bother them or their wives from expressing their dancing art in a same gender dancing pair. Art is art, same as love is love, isn’t it?”

NaiNai stood up and asked for attention, like a real tribe chief:
“Everyone! Let’s go back in the dining room and leave them alone for a while, to peacefully learn and eventually rehearse the dancing steps.
Besides, I didn’t serve you yet the sherry I prepared by a new recipe that I never tried before. I want your honest opinion! Let’s go, everyone!” 

After they remained alone in the living room, Xiao Zhan started explaining to Yibo:
“This dance is called Bachata. It is not Spanish originally, it’s a style of social dance from the Dominican Republic which is now danced all over the world. It is connected with bachata music.
Bachata is commonly known as a very sensual dance.
Usually, dancing Bachata is a way to express the feelings one has for a specific other.
As you probably already know, before even learning the steps, we should try to build the connection, the chemistry so needed between two dancers.”

“Woah, you know so much about dancing! It was my dream, but I might think that you haunted me in my sleep, and got contaminated with my dancing dream, ha, ha.”, Yibo cracked a joke, like he usually does when trying to hide his nervousness.
How in the world does he want to build that damn connection and chemistry?

“First of all, let’s settle who will lead. In every dancing pair one should lead.”, Yibo cleared his voice.

“Not necessary. If you pay attention, these two keep taking turns leading. But if it’s easier to you, we could choose who is who, I mean you could learn the shorter dude’s steps, while I would choose the big ass dude’s role. Not as I am the one with a bigger ass from us, ha, ha. By the way, I couldn’t have not noticed that you have a very nice piece of ass, ferm, perky, rounded…Oh, yet again, I’m sorry MeiMei for envying you so much!
Don’t blush so hard, my sweet gouzaizai! I was just trying to build the connection and chemistry, don’t you remember?”

“By talking about my ass?
Jeez, Xiao Zhan Ge, you’re something…!”, Yibo shouted.

“Shh, they will hear you and think that we’re fighting, not learning how to dance!”, Xiao Zhan pressed his palm over Yibo’s mouth.

“God, your lips are so plump and so…Forgive me MeiMei, but I really must do this!”, Xiao Zhan whispered, slowly removing his hand from Yibo’s mouth…And replacing it with his own fervent lips pressed shortly, but hard, on Yibo’s trembling lips.

“I apologize to you, too, I did it for the sake of building the…”, Xiao Zhan remained breathless while explaining.
It was his turn now to tap his red, burning cheeks.

“The chemistry and the connection! Don’t worry, I am not upset, I understand.
Let’s watch the video now!”, Yibo tried to speak in a voice as normal as he could.

They learned the steps pretty fast, and after a brief rehearsal, they called the family to gather again in the living room.

After everyone had finally sat in their chairs, and Mama Alexandra connected her phone to LingLing’s speakers he brought from his room, she started the dancing video and the main characters of the Christmas evening started their dancing show, too.

While imitating the dancing pair from the video, they also improvised a lot.

The audience gasped in unison at Yibo’s flexibility when he stretched his leg into the lunge position between his dancing partner’s legs, and when Xiao Zhan lifted one of his super long legs and folded it under Yibo’s armpit, they almost panicked that the dancers could get injured by braking some bones.

“Good heavens, the way they are moving like they have no bones in their bodies!”, GuagYao exclaimed, standing up from the chair, to watch the dancers closer.

“Absolutely GORGEOUS!”, Ba and Baba said at the same time.

“I am simply speechless!”, Ma Jin Sanren replied, holding her husband’s arm, as to not faint out from too much admiration.

” Their movements are playful, beautiful and sway together as if they morphed into one!”, Mama Alexandra completed.

“And their chemistry together! It simply fills me with love, peace and harmony!”, LingLing said, too.

“I have never seen something like this!
I’ve never seen two people so happy and so in sync while dancing! This is beautiful, graceful and I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say it, but I will say it nevertheless. These two dancing together are hot, hot,hot!”, NaiNai shouted enthusiastically.

“Dulce GeGe should get married to ZhanZhan GeGe, not to MianMian JieJie!”, the twins shouted in one voice, but their outraging statement was luckily covered by the loud clapping of the whole audience.

They didn’t discuss the ending pose beforehand, thus they improvised.
When Xiao Zhan lifted Yibo by his underarms, he instantly wrapped his legs around his waist, while holding Xiao Zhan’s shoulder with one hand and holding his face with the other hand
When they locked their eyes in that intense stare, everything around had disappeared. There was no music, no audience, no living room, but just the two of them floating together on a cloud of …

Of what?

It can’t be love, there is no way!

Yibo shook his head like trying to wake up from a dream, and when the audience started to clap and cheer, he quickly slipped down his legs from Xiao Zhan’s waist and removed his hand from his cheek, like it was fire.

“Merry Christmas, my beloved brother in law! I wish you to be happy! Always! And may all your dreams come true, you really deserve that!”, Xiao Zhan whispered, planting a “brotherly”, loud kiss on each of his cheeks.

“Merry Christmas to you, too. I wish you the same!”, Yibo replied in a strangled voice, not daring to kiss him back.
But he later regretted not doing so, when all the others started to greet each other with “Merry Christmas” and kiss each other’s cheeks.

Damn, he really wanted to kiss Xiao Zhan back!
Thus he took advantage of the family’s chaotic “Merry Christmas” moment and while sharing hugs and cheek kisses here and there, he stealthily slid closer to Xiao Zhan and pretended to hug and kiss his cheeks by mistake, while yelling a too loud “Merry Christmas” against his… His lips? Huh? How did his second kiss land on Xiao Zhan’s mouth instead of his cheek?
Luckily, nobody, but them, noticed that.

“Woah, Perrito, you broke my eardrum!
Merry Christmas to you, too!”, Xiao Zhan laughed, hugging him one last time, before stepping away to answer a phone call.

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