"When's Auntie Kadri getting here?" Kai asks, picking up his toy car before rolling it along his leg, watching it very intently. He sat next to the huge tree that we had picked out at the tree farm we went to a few weeks ago. 

It was covered in random colored ornaments that Kai picked out last year when he finally understood what to do with them. The tree didn't look too put together because there was no overall theme, but Kai was happy, so I was too. It was the day before Christmas Eve, so we were hanging out with Ximena and Kadri for the day since Ximena would be leaving tonight to spend time with her family for the holidays.

I've learned through Kadri that Ximena's parents are super, super great, but they're still a little wary of the fact that she was with a girl around their entire family. Apparently, her grandmother is a very strong, independent Latina woman that is very close to God and believes that a woman should be with a man. So Ximena doesn't feel comfortable taking Kadri to her family's place whenever her grandmother was there since the old woman had a habit of getting pretty heated when it came to the subject. But Kadri had no problem with that since she's said on multiple occasions that she rather not cause any trouble with her girlfriend's family.

I check my watch to see that Kadri and Ximena were supposed to arrive pretty soon. "Probably in a few minutes."

And I was right. After a few minutes, the apartment door opens and my best friends walk into the apartment. Kai jumps off the couch before rushing over to them and throwing his arms around their legs. Kadri chuckles before picking the little boy up, kissing along his cheeks to make him giggle with the brightest smile on his face from the attention. "Hi, buddy, how was your day with Daddy?"

"It was good!" Kai says in a high-pitched voice, nodding his head eagerly. "We went to the mall and got your Christmas present and then Daddy let me fix the side of the tree that you decorated."

Kadri fakes a gasp before turning her glare onto me. I freeze before leaning over and playfully hitting Kai's arm, making him giggle and hide his face from me. "Hey! That was a secret. You weren't actually supposed to tell her."

"Sorry, Daddy," Kai says with another giggle before holding his arms out to Ximena. Kadri hands him over to her girlfriend, who immediately starts talking to him about some dessert dish she made that she knows he would love. I smile, happy that Ximena loved Kai so much and wanted to be in his life just as much as Kadri did. I already knew that they would be together for a long time, maybe forever, so it was kinda essential that she liked my son. Thankfully, she fell in love with him the moment they met.

"Merry Christmas Eve Eve," Kadri says to me, sliding her arm around my waist before setting her head on my shoulder and looking over at her girlfriend and Kai. I watch as her smile brightens when she sees the way they talk to each other and I smile too, glad that my best friend was so happy.

"Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you too," I say back before pulling her over to the Christmas tree to motion for her to set the presents down she brought with her. Since she would be spending Christmas with Kai, my parents, and I, we would be opening her presents with us on that day, but we decided to open Ximena's presents tonight, so she could see Kai's reaction to the toys she had gotten for him.

Kadri nudges my arm, giving me a smirk. "What presents did you and Kai get me today?"

I roll my eyes before glancing over at my son, who now sat on Ximena's lap and was moving his arms around as he told her a dramatic story about something. "Not gonna tell you, but the kid probably will with his big mouth."

Kadri chuckles, hitting my arm playfully as she shakes her head. I go to say something, but I'm interrupted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I let out a sigh before pulling it out to see who had texted me and to my surprise, it was Aria, who must've just gotten off work. We had been texting nonstop, but I assumed that we wouldn't be talking much since him, Arabella, and Roman were all going to his parent's house tonight to spend time with their family. Is there anyway you could come outside and talk to me for like 10 minutes? I promise it'll be quick

I narrow my eyes at my phone, making Kadri move closer to me to look down at the text. After reading it a few times, she looks up at me with a small smirk before pushing me over to the door. I look over at her in confusion, moving closer to her so Kai doesn't hear me. "No, I'm not leaving you guys when you just got here."

Kadri rolls her eyes before pushing me again. "Oh, don't be an ass, it'll be for 10 minutes. Just go see what the guy wants, make-out with him for a bit, and then you'll be right back here. It won't take long."

"You're so mean," I tell her with a pout, but go over and kiss Kai's head before stepping out of the apartment since I didn't need to be told twice. I stuff my phone back into my pocket before taking the steps downstairs since I didn't really have the patience to wait for the elevator right now. Once I'm down in the lobby, I see Aria standing against the glass outside with his phone in his hand, probably waiting for me to text him back. I could see that he was holding other things in his hands and that made me smile that he was bringing me stuff.

I push open the door to the apartment building, making Aria's head snap up to look at me. When he sees it was me, his eyes brighten and his cute smile appears on his lips as he pushes off the wall and takes a few steps towards me. He holds his arm open for me and I smile before stepping into it, wrapping my arms around his waist. "Hi."

Aria pulls back, his free hand sliding up to settle against my cheek before he crashes his soft lips against mine. I feel a pull at my heartstrings as he moves his mouth against mine for a few moments before moving away. "Hi."

"What're you doing here?" I whisper to him, keeping my arm around his waist because I was going to take advantage of this closeness we were able to have for the short amount of time.

"Well," Aria says with a smug smile before pulling away from me to look down at the things in his arms. He taps on the aluminum foil that was covering a plate before smiling up at me. "Arabella and Roman forced all of our friends to come over and bake cookies, so I thought I would bring you some."

"Aw, that's so nice. Thank you," I say with a huge smile, feeling those butterflies in my stomach that are always present whenever I was with Aria.

He taps on the box underneath the plate of cookies that was expertly wrapped in bright red wrapping paper. "And this is your Christmas present. It's not much, but I think you'll like it," he says, making me smile even wider. I hadn't expected him to bring me anything, especially since I really didn't think I would see him before the holiday. Then, his smile softens as he looks down at the other box underneath my present, tapping on it lightly. "and this is for Kai. It's not much and I don't really know too much about toys or anything he likes, so I just guessed. Also, you can re-wrap it yourself and put your name on it if you want, I don't mind."

I don't know why, but my eyes start getting watery at the fact that he bought my son a gift. My hand comes up to cover my mouth and instead of Aria's smile widening, it drops completely. I throw myself into his arms again, hiding my face in his chest as my emotions start going crazy. 

I probably look pathetic, crying into my boyfriend's shirt in front of my apartment building because of a wrapped present, but I just felt so overwhelmed and happy. I've known this whole time that he took Kai into account with everything we did together and he made sure that I left at the right times to pick up my son and always asked how he was, but this was a whole other level.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to overstep," Aria whispers, kissing the top of my head.

I pull back from his chest immediately, wiping at my eyes before shaking my head. "No, you absolutely did not overstep. This is... it's just... I didn't expect this whatsoever. Thank you, Aria, just... thank you so much."

His smile comes back onto his face before he leans down to set the boxes on the ground with the plate on top of it. He stands back up before pulling me into his arms, holding me much closer. He places a firm kiss onto the top of my head before sliding his hand through my hair. After hugging me for about another minute, he pulls back and connects our lips again. But this time, I didn't want to pull away. I wanted to be very, very dirty with him right now, but that definitely wasn't an option at the moment.

First of all, my son was currently upstairs probably begging my best friends to let him open up a present without me knowing. Second of all, I don't even know if Aria would be up for that. And third of all, I definitely had way more self-respect than to fuck in the back of some car... maybe. I don't know. Yeah, definitely not. I would probably do it if it was a different time than right now. So instead of offering up the suggestion, I grip his hips tightly and press my body flush against his.

After a few more moments, I pull away from his lips, gripping the sides of his jacket and pressing my forehead against his. He stares at me with a small smirk, probably knowing exactly what I was thinking. "So I don't have a Christmas present for you, but the next chance we get when we can be alone with a bed, then you'll definitely be getting something."

His smirk gets bigger before he winks at me, making me chuckle and turn my head away from him with a blush. "Oh, are you gonna fuck me?"

I lightly push on his chest, glaring at him playfully. "That damn confidence."

"You love it," he teases me before reaching down and picking up the boxes and plate of cookies. He hands it to me before making sure I was able to carry it. I look down at the present that was for Kai and see that he had written a little tag for him that said his name with a cute smiley face and that, for some reason, made my heart swell with happiness. I look up at Aria to see him giving me his signature smile before leaning down to press his lips against mine once more. When he pulls away, he brushes his hand through my hair. "so I guess I'll see you after Christmas. Arabella, Roman, and I are leaving in, like, 15 minutes to go to my parent's house, so I'll see you in a few days."

I smile, nodding my head. "Okay."

He pecks my lips for the last time before walking away from me. Once he's halfway to his car, he turns to me, giving me that wickedly hot smirk of his. "And I expect that Christmas present soon."

I instantly start blushing again because yeah, I'm much more open to talk about sex, but not when he's practically yelling it from across the parking lot. Even if there was no one here and they probably didn't even know what he was talking about, I still got super nervous about it. I just chuckle and wave at him before going back up to my apartment. When I get up to the place, I use my keys to unlock the door before walking in. All three of the people immediately look up at me and Kai rushes over to my legs and wraps his arms around my legs.

"Daddy!" He yells, looking happy to see me again. I chuckle before patting his head lightly. I motion for him to sit back on the couch before sitting next to him, setting the presents and plate on the coffee table.

Kadri gives me a confused look, pointing to the wrapped gifts. "Presents?"

I nod my head, lightly biting on my lip as the nerves start to settle in since this was the first thing of Aria's that Kai was seeing since I met him. Thankfully, he can't read yet because there's been multiple times that Aria has texted me while Kai's been using my phone and that might've been a bit awkward if that's how he found out about my boyfriend. Kai sits up on the couch, squinting at the little tag on the bottom gift since he probably recognized his name because I taught him what that looked like when written down. "That's my name!"

Ximena nods her head with a small smile, glancing up at me for a second before looking back at my son. "Yeah, that's your name."

Kai squints at the tag again before pointing at the portion that said From: Aria :) and looking up at Ximena. "What does that say?"

Ximena looks up at me for affirmation to see if he could tell him, so I just nod since I would have to start telling him about my boyfriend sooner rather than later. I didn't know what was going to happen, so I needed to start preparing him for when they were going to meet. Kadri smiles at me before patting my shoulder, silently telling me that everything would be okay. Ximena smiles and taps the place where it says the name on the tag. "It says it's from Aria."

Kai squints at the gift tag again but gets nowhere with that since he only knew how to recognize his own name. Then, he looks over at me, just staring like he was waiting for me to speak. I stare back at my child, not knowing exactly what to say until Kadri pokes my shoulder, getting my attention. She motions to Kai before motioning to the present that Aria had given me. That clicks me into gear immediately and I turn back to Kai with a small smile. "So... you know how Auntie Kadri and Mena are girlfriends?"

"Yeah," Kai says, looking between the two women that now looked confused at my question since they didn't see where I was going with it. I just wave them off before focusing on my son.

"And that means they're dating, right?" I ask and Kai nods his head. "Well, Aria is... Aria is my boyfriend, which means I'm dating him."

Kai's face immediately scrunches up in confusion before he glances back at Kadri, who nods her head. I guess I probably should've explained at one point about dating and how people usually get into relationships as they grow old, but he's three. I never had that thought to teach him that until now. Kadri ruffles his hair lightly before putting on a smile. "So that means that Daddy is in a relationship. Like, you know how Grandpa and Grandma are married? Well, they were dating before that."

Kai nods his head before glancing at me, sticking one hand out to point at the wrapped present. "So you marry him?"

"No," I blurt out before letting out a sigh. "I don't know if I will marry him, buddy. Dating means we're together, but not married. It means that we might get there one day."

"Okay," he says, dragging out the word before grabbing his stuffed animal and holding him on his lap. "but why?"

"Why am I dating him?" I ask for clarification. I knew that this conversation would turn into me answering his questions and him just asking 'why' until he got bored, but I could handle that. He needed to learn this since I didn't want him to be confused about anything.

"Yes," Kai says with a small nod of the head, continuing to stare up at me with a blank expression.

I clear my throat before brushing some of his hair out of his face. "Well, Aria is a very nice man. He's very smart and really cares for me and really likes you. He's very excited about meeting you one day in the future."

"Why?"

"Why is he excited about meeting you at some point?" I ask for clarification. As I said, this conversation was going down the hole of him just asking 'why'.

"Yes," Kai says, continuing to give me that blank expression that he usually had when he was giving you his full attention.

"Well, I've been telling him a lot about you because he knows that if he's dating me, then he'll also have to get to know you too. Just like how when Auntie Kadri started dating Mena, she had to get to know you, right? It'll be just like that, but it'll be my boyfriend now," I explain to him, hoping he'll understand what I meant. By the small nod he gives me, I assume he understood what I meant since I was giving him examples of things that have already happened before.

Kai gets a little skeptical look on his face before he pushes his stuffed animal aside and scoots over to me before placing himself in my lap. I instantly wrap my arms around him, giving him a small smile while I waited for him to tell me how he was feeling, as I've taught him to do. "Is he a bad man?"

I instantly shake my head, hating that he even thought that I might possibly bring someone bad into our lives. "No, buddy, he's not a bad man. I promise you that if someone was ever a bad person, I'm going to do my best to keep them away from you. I'm going to keep you safe, okay?"

"Okay," Kai says with a small smile before sliding off my lap until his feet were planted on the floor. He gently places the plate onto the coffee table before grabbing his present and lightly shaking it to hear what it sounded like. It didn't sound like anything too hard, so I was assuming it was clothes or maybe a book or something. As Aria said, it wasn't anything much, but I was still so grateful for it. Kai looks up at me with a mischievous smile. "can I open it?"

On Christmas Day, the entire day had been hectic so far. Kai woke me up so early that it wasn't even light out yet, so I had to force him to go back to sleep, but he would only sleep unless he was in my bed. So I spent Christmas morning with a kid's foot in my back along with his loud snores that he somehow is able to produce at such a young age. Then, when it was actually time for us to get up, Kai was in a bad mood, so I had to force him to watch TV while I made him his favorite breakfast because he was not having it today.

But after he ate, his mood seemed to perk up. While we waited for my parents and Kadri to get here at the time we agreed on, Kai spent almost the entire time shaking the presents that were under the tree and trying to guess what they were. He got a few of them right, but thankfully, I was a good liar and was able to fool him into thinking it was something else.

Then, when Kadri got here, Kai got even more excited about opening presents that he was starting to get a bit cranky from all the impatience since my parents were late and I would never hear the end of it if we started without them. Kadri and I basically had to force him to sit down with us instead of pacing around the Christmas tree like he did for about a minute with the angriest look on his face. Once my parents actually got there, oh boy, they got the earful from my crazy three-year-old because "they should've left earlier". His words, not mine.

My parents could barely even sit down by the time Kai had grabbed the present he wanted to open. It was one of the bigger boxes that he had, so I knew he definitely liked quantity over quality, so I would have to remember that. We were almost done opening all of our presents, my parents and Kadri mostly getting me clothes and other fun hobbies to do since they thought I could do more whenever I'm just sitting alone in the apartment. All-in-all, it was a good Christmas so far and I got some pretty great stuff.

Kai definitely loved all the toys that he got since he practically surrounded himself in all the boxes he needed help opening while all the clothes we had gifted him were just thrown to the side like they didn't matter. Most days, he barely even likes his toys, but on Christmas, it was a completely different story. He liked them today, but by tomorrow, they would just be thrown around the room with him playing with them for one minute and moving on to the next.

"Okay, now, who are these presents from?" Mom asks to no one in particular as she picks up the neatly wrapped red presents. I wait for her to read the names because she's heard about Aria, but nothing much since I knew she would get all crazy and obsessive if she knew he was officially my boyfriend. A confused look comes on her face before her eyes shoot up to look at me. "Aria?"

"Oh, that's Daddy's boyfriend!" Kai says in a perky voice since he's actually been really good ever since he learned that I was in a relationship. He even talked to his Uncle Lincoln yesterday about him since he heard him mention the name to me. My brother was definitely shocked that I had told him so soon after our conversation, but I could tell that he was also proud since it showed him that I was serious about the guy.

"Boyfriend?" My mom asks, looking up at me with a shocked expression. Well, damn, I guess she knew now.

Kai gets a little worried look on his face before he glances at me, moving back-and-forth on his feet, trying to look as innocent as possible. "Was that a secret?"

"No, buddy, it's not a secret," I tell him with a smile to make him feel better. He instantly perks up before allowing himself to be distracted by the toy car that he was currently playing with since it was the last thing he opened. I look over at my mom, nodding my head. "yeah, he's my boyfriend."

Mom smiles, hiding a bit of her excitement since she probably didn't want to obsess over that fact in front of her grandchild. Her grip tightens on the presents in her hands, confirming my suspicions that she was hiding her excitement. "Well, that's great, Levi. I'm so happy for you."

"Me too, Lee, that's fantastic," my dad says, nodding his head with a huge smile on my face.

"Well, you open the present first and then we'll have Kai open his," Mom says, handing me the present from Aria. She sits down on the couch next to me, being careful of the pile of stuff that was forming from all the gifts that I had opened. I glance down at the neatly wrapped box, running my finger over the tag that said To: Levi <3 and that made my heart absolutely soar with happiness. I contain my smirk because I didn't want anyone in the room to point it out and make me blush.

I take a few seconds to unwrap the gift before tearing open the box, not trying to seem too eager, even though I definitely was. As soon as I unfold the sides of the box, I see a glossy book laying there that said Black Holes For Beginners and I couldn't help but chuckle from Aria's gift of choice. I display the book to everyone in the room since they were so curious to see what it was. Once they see the black cover with a yellow light thing on the side of the front, they all look utterly confused, except for Kai since he wasn't even paying attention.

"He got you a book on black holes? Sexy," Kadri teases me, rolling her eyes at Aria's gift of choice as well. She knew that the boy was a nerd from the moment she met him because not only was he wearing black, thick-framed glasses, but he had put on a shirt that said Y'all Need Science with a picture of a beaker. Oh, Kadri definitely made sure to repeatedly tell him that he was, capital-N, nerdy. Not that he minded, he actually seemed to like it.

"We got to talking one day and I told him that I didn't really know what a black hole was and he freaked out and told me that one day, he would explain everything about it," I explain to them, remembering the day clearly when he freaked out behind the bar at work, definitely attracting the attention of some of the customers there.

"Nerd," Kadri coughs out so Kai couldn't understand her. I roll my eyes before looking back down at the box to see that there were more things in there. I pull out some soft pajama pants that were black with cartoon-styled stars decorating them. I smile, knowing Kadri was right about the dude being a nerd. It was cute though. Definitely insanely cute.

"This guy's an astronomer?" Dad questions, smiling when he sees the pajama pants.

"Yeah, he's still in college," I tell him before continuing to look at the other gift in the box. It was a bottle of rum since he's probably learned that it was my favorite alcohol because that's usually what I ordered with diet soda whenever I felt up for drinking.

"And a bartender," Kadri supplies when she sees the bottle of alcohol in my hands.

"Ooo, that's a good brand," my dad tells me, nodding when I look up at him. I knew nothing about alcohol and drinking, so I just assumed he was right. I just hope that Aria hadn't paid a ton for this because I really didn't want him to spend too much on me. I smile before setting the bottle on the table, not wanting it to break. I grab the other present that was for Kai before looking at him to see him holding his toy car in the air like it was flying around above his head.

"Hey, Kai, come open the present from Aria," I tell him and he instantly drops the car onto the carpeted floor and rushes over to me, clearly excited to see what was in the box. I set it on his lap once I realize that it wasn't too heavy for him to hold. Before it was even down all the way, his little hands attack the red paper, way too eager to see what was inside. I help him open the box since it was taped shut before letting him take out the things in the box.

"What's this?" He asks, holding up a smaller box that displayed a picture on the front. I grab it from his hands before reading the title of the item that Aria had gotten him. I chuckle at his silliness before pointing to the globe type thing on the front of the box that looked like something my son would enjoy.

"It's a globe that displays a light-up picture on your ceiling when it's dark. It looks like it can make your ceiling look like the night sky while you're trying to sleep," I explain for him, pointing out all the stars and planets that were shown in the photo.

Kai's eyes widen as he takes in the image. "Can we turn it on, Daddy? Please!"

I chuckle, nodding my head before grabbing the box and settling it onto the coffee table. "I promise we will tonight. I think it's too bright in your room right now to be able to see it, but as soon as it starts to get dark, we can turn it on."

"Yay!" Kai says before continuing to dig through the box before he pulls out pajama pants that were identical to the ones I got from Aria as well. They were black with stars covering them in an animated style. I knew the pants would be a bit big on Kai, but there was a string in the waistband we could tighten so they would stay up on his tiny legs, so I wasn't worried. I dig through the box I had gotten before pulling out the same style pants to show Kai that we would match. "Whoa, we can be twins!"

"Yeah, we can," I tell him with a chuckle.

My mom giggles, searching around for my phone before holding it against her chest. She motions to the hallway where our rooms were with a huge smile on her face. "Well, go put them on, boys. We can send a picture to Aria to say thank you."

I knew she wouldn't want to tell me twice, so I pick up Kai and take him to my room so we could change our pants. We were both wearing white t-shirts, so we were definitely matching once we put on the bottoms. As soon as I tied the string for Kai, he rushes out the room to show the others the pants that were actually really soft and comfortable. Once I had them on, I walk out into the living room to see my mom already taking pictures of my son doing different poses for the camera. I chuckle before standing next to him, posing with him.

"Make a funny face!" Kai instructs me before running his hands through his hair and grabbing fistfuls of his hair and holding them up while making a wild face. I just stick my tongue out, tilting my head to the side while my mother takes the picture for us while everyone giggles. Once Kai had gotten all the pictures he wanted, he settles back in his spot before playing with his toys.

I send the picture to Aria with the message being The only clothes Kai was excited about, thank you! <3 and I make sure that I choose one of the silly ones to show him that we were both excited about the presents. Kadri moves on to opening one of her gifts that my father had gotten her and my phone vibrates while they discuss the aerating wine glass she had just opened.

You both look so adorable! Glad you liked it! Hope you teach Kai about some of those black holes you'll know all about after reading the book. Merry Christmas <3, he texts back. I lock my phone before holding it to my chest with a big smile on my face, happy that this holiday was so great, not only with my family but with my boyfriend as well.